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FIFTY  YEARS 

The  Provident  Life 

and  Trust  Company 

of  Philadelphia 

1865-1915 


SAMUEL  R.  SHIPLEY 


FIFTY  YEARS 

The  Provident  Life 
and  Trust  Company 

of  Philadelphia 

1865-1915 

by 

William  S.  Ashbrook 


PHILADELPHIA 
1915 


The  Holmes  Press 
philadelphia 


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Sit •••;:••...; 


Table  of  Contents 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    The  Formation  of  the  Company: 

Its  Founders  and  Early  Officers 11 

II.    The  First  Twenty  Years 20 

III.  The  Struggle  Against  Deferred  Dividends    .     .  34 

IV.  The  Present  Organization  of  the  Office  ...  44 
V.    The  Agency  Organization 58 

VI.    The  Past  Decade 65 


33931G 


Illustrations 


Samuel  R.  Shipley          . 

Fron 

tispiece 

OPPOSITE  PAGE 

Thomas  Evans       .... 

12 

William  C.  Longstreth 

14 

Joseph  Ashbrook    .... 

16 

Rowland  Parry 

18 

Dr.  Thomas  Wistar 

20 

Joseph  B.  Townsend      . 

22 

Office  for  Organization 

24 

Second  Office. 

24 

Third  Office             .... 

24 

Facsimile  of  Check  No.  1 

26 

Facsimile  of  First  Policy  issued  by  The  Provident 

28 

Fourth  Office,  Company  Building 

30 

Henry  Haines         .... 

32 

Richard  Cadbury 

32 

Richard  Wood       .... 

32 

Joshua  H.  Morris 

32 

Charles  F.  Coffin   .... 

34 

Jeremiah  Hacker 

34 

William  Hacker     .... 

34 

Francis  T.  King 

34 

Murray  Shipley      .... 

36 

Charles  Hartshorne 

36 

John  B.  Garrett      .... 

36 

Philip  C.  Garrett 

36 

William  Gummere 

38 

Benjamin  V.  Marsh 

38 

Frederic  Collins      .... 

38 

J.  Morton  Albertson 

38 

Israel  Morris           .... 

40 

James  V.  Watson 

40 

Justus  C.  Strawbridge 

40 

Frederic  H.  Strawbridge 

40 

OPPOSITE  PAGE 


William  Longstreth 

Edward  H.  Ogden 

Thomas  Scattergood 

J.  Preston  Thomas 

Marriott  C.  Morris 

Frank  H.  Taylor 

John  T.  Emlen      . 

Morris  R.  Bockius 

Henry  H.  Collins 

Charles  H.  Harding 

J.  Whitall  Nicholson 

Parker  S.  Williams 

Robert  M.  Janney 

John  B.  Morgan 

Joseph  B.  Townsend,  Jr. 

Levi  L.  Rue    . 

George  Wood 

Samuel  Dickson  ..... 

Agents'  Meeting  in  Philadelphia,  in  1883 

First  Meeting  of  General  Agents'  Association,  1912 

The  Philadelphia  Agency  in  1913 

Present  Provident  Building  .... 

Present  Vaults  of  Company 

Interior  409  Chestnut  Street,  looking  South.     Present  Appearance 

Present  Directors'  Room       .... 

Fireproof  Building  for  Storage  of  Records 

Northwest  Corner  of  Fourth  and  Chestnut  Streets  prior  to  1890 

Interior  409  Chestnut  Street,  looking  North,  about  1880 

Interior  409  Chestnut  Street,  looking  South,  about  1880   . 

Boston  Office  in  1876      ..... 

Northwest  Corner  of  Fourth  and  Chestnut  Streets  in  1821 

North  Side  of  Chestnut  Street  West  of  Fourth  in  1851 

"Franklin  at  Home"  .... 

"The  Young  Franklin"  .... 

Meeting  House  and  School  in  Fourth  Street 


Preface 

The  task  which  has  been  laid  upon  me,  and  which 
I  have  felt  it  an  honor  to  undertake,  has  been  to  prepare 
a  simple  and  untechnical  narrative  of  the  history  of 
the  Company  which,  for  those  of  its  friends  who  were 
familiar  with  its  earlier  days,  might  freshen  their  own 
recollection,  and  for  those  whose  acquaintance  with  it 
has  been  more  recent,  might  link  the  past  with  the  pres- 
ent in  a  clearer  understanding  of  how  worthily  the 
Company  has  fulfilled  the  expectation  of  its  founders. 

William  S.  Ashbrook. 
Philadelphia, 

Eleventh  month  10th,  1915. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  FORMATION  OF  THE  COMPANY: 
ITS  FOUNDERS  AND  EARLY  OFFICERS 

THE  Provident  Life  and  Trust  Company  of  Phila- 
delphia had  its  origin  in  the  minds  of  several  Phil- 
adelphians,  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends, 
who,  while  traveling  in  England,  had  been  attracted 
by  the  success  of  the  Friends'  Provident  Institution  of 
Bradford.  This  institution,  established  in  1832,  had 
confined  its  operations  to  insurance  on  the  lives  of 
birthright  Friends,  and  had  experienced  a  surprisingly 
low  mortality,  owing  to  the  exceptional  longevity 
among  members  of  that  Society. 

From  letters  from  T.  Wistar  Brown,  John  E. 
Carter  and  Anthony  W.  Kimber,  we  learn  that  a  num- 
ber of  men  who  had  been  associated  together  in  other 
benevolent  causes,  were  invited  to  meet  early  in  1865 
at  the  house  of  Thomas  Evans,  on  Arch  Street  near 
Eighth,  in  Philadelphia,  to  establish,  for  the  benefit 
of  American  Friends,  a  company  on  the  Mutual  plan 
somewhat  similar  to  the  Friends'  Provident  Institution 
of  Bradford.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  investi- 
gate the  legal  aspects  of  the  proposed  movement,  to 
arrange  details,  and  to  propose  to  a  future  meeting 
such  steps  as  might  be  necessary  to  carry  into  effect  the 

[ii] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

general  conclusions  of  the  conference.  This  committee 
discovered  that  if  the  company  were  to  extend  its  oper- 
ations beyond  the  borders  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
the  laws  of  several  states  necessitated  a  capital  stock, 
and  it  recommended  that  a  joint  stock  company  should 
be  incorporated,  substantially  on  the  basis  of  the  present 
charter  of  The  Provident  Life  and  Trust  Company. 
This  recommendation  was  adopted,  and  the  company 
incorporated,  Third  month  22nd,  1865. 

The  charter,  in  addition  to  the  authority  to  insure 
lives,  conferred  authority  to  act  as  executor,  adminis- 
trator, guardian,  etc.:  that  is,  to  transact  what  is 
known  in  Philadelphia  as  the  trust  business.  The 
duties  arising  from  this  branch  of  the  business  are  of 
such  a  delicate  and  sacred  character  that  only  a  com- 
pany managed  with  the  highest  skill  and  integrity 
could  hope  to  command  public  confidence.  The  rela- 
tions of  the  two  departments  of  the  business  were 
fixed  by  the  provisions  of  the  charter,  with  some  early 
amendments.  It  was  provided  that  the  entire  surplus 
in  the  insurance  department  was  to  accumulate  for  the 
benefit  of  the  policyholders,  so  that  the  only  advantage, 
direct  or  indirect,  which  the  stockholders  could  at  any 
time  have  from  the  union  of  the  two  features  of  the 
business,  would  result  from  the  fact  that  the  manage- 
ment of  the  trust  business,  from  which  they  derived 
their  profit,  would  be  done  for  them  without  charge. 

Experience  has  shown  that  the  additional  cost  of 
conducting  the  trust  business  jointly  with  life  insurance 

[12] 


THOMAS  EVANS 


FIFTY  YEARS 

has  been  an  inconsiderable  extra  charge,  viewed  in 
connection  with  the  advantages  secured,  nor  has  it  had 
the  effect  of  increasing  the  Company's  general  rate  of 
expense.  On  the  contrary,  the  Provident  is  conceded 
to  be  one  of  the  most  economically  managed  companies 
in  the  country. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  stockholders,  held  Sixth  month 
28th,  1865,  Samuel  R.  Shipley,  T.  Wistar  Brown, 
Henry  Haines,  Richard  Cadbury,  Richard  Wood, 
Joshua  H.  Morris,  William  C.  Longstreth,  Charles 
F.  Coffin  and  Jeremiah  Hacker  were  elected  Directors, 
and  the  Board  thus  constituted  proceeded  to  elect 
Samuel  R.  Shipley  President. 

The  new  company  was  to  be  singularly  fortunate 
both  in  its  Directors  and  in  its  first  President.  The 
Friends  who  composed  the  Board  were  known  not 
only  for  their  high  sense  of  the  fiduciary  responsibility 
which  they  were  assuming,  but  also  for  their  sagacity 
and  wisdom  in  affairs,  and  for  their  enlightened  view 
of  what  constituted  fair  dealing.  Well  known  to  one 
another  personally,  and  striving  harmoniously  for  the 
success  of  their  new  undertaking,  they  gave  to  it  a 
service  which  was  as  generous  as  it  was  painstaking  and 
conscientious.  Their  presence  upon  the  Board  was  an 
earnest  of  their  best  endeavor  that  the  new  enterprise 
should  reflect  their  own  views  of  probity  and  integrity. 

Samuel  R.  Shipley,  whom  they  had  selected  as 
President,  was  to  show  to  a  rare  degree  a  faculty  which 
always  marks  a  great  executive.     He  knew  how  to 

[13] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

choose  for  his  lieutenants  men  upon  whom  he  could 
devolve  a  freedom  of  action  which  called  forth  their 
best  efforts,  while  he  retained  in  his  own  hands  an  over- 
sight which  guided  with  a  sagacious  prevision  of  the 
future  but  did  not  hamper  in  matters  of  detail.  Attrac- 
tive in  person  and  winning  in  manner,  he  inspired  an 
affection  which  was  as  real  as  the  confidence  felt  in 
his  ability.  When,  forty  years  later,  owing  to  ill  health, 
he  was  retiring  from  the  Presidency,  and  his  associates 
on  the  Board  were  reviewing  his  service  to  the  Com- 
pany, they  noted  that 

"his  subtle  sense  of  a  situation,  his  resourcefulness,  his 
courage,  his  exactness,  his  quickness,  his  attractive  affa- 
bility, had  largely  accounted  for  the  prosperity  of  The 
Provident  Life  and  Trust  Company." 

His  reputation  as  a  financier  was  not  confined  to  Phila- 
delphia but  was  wide-spread. 

The  first  office  of  the  Company  was  in  a  basement 
at  No.  247  South  Third  Street,  but  Tenth  month  1st, 
1865,  the  building  at  No.  Ill  South  Fourth  Street  was 
leased,  which  had  previously  been  occupied  by  The 
Press.  The  first  investment  of  the  capital  authorized 
was  in  United  States  Government  5-20's.  Rowland 
Parry  was  elected  Actuary,  Seventh  month  18th,  1865. 
His  mathematical  attainments  enabled  him  at  the  age 
of  fifty-nine  to  acquire  readily  the  knowledge  required 
for  the  performance  of  his  duty.  Modest  and  unob- 
trusive, his  high  standard  of  conduct  and  his  honorable 
character,  joined  to  his  delightful  personal  qualities 

[14] 


WILLIAM  C.  LONGSTRETH 

Director,  elected  1865.         Died  1881 

Vice  President,  1867  to  1881 


FIFTY  YEARS 

and  his  real  ability,  won  the  warm  attachment  of  all 
who  came  in  contact  with  him.  He  retired  in  1882 
and  died  Eighth  month  21st,  1890,  at  the  ripe  age  of 
eighty-four. 

Dr.  Thomas  Wistar  was  elected  Examining  Physi- 
cian, Seventh  month  18th,  1865.  He  was  to  serve  the 
Company  actively  until  1904,  when  he  became  Chief 
Medical  Examiner  Emeritus.  He  died  in  1913.  The 
Provident  had  been  founded  to  secure  to  Friends  and 
"others  of  like  careful  habits"  the  lower  cost  of  insur- 
ance attaching  to  their  superior  longevity.  It  is  true 
that  the  agents  of  the  Company,  themselves  carefully 
chosen,  were  called  upon  to  exercise  some  degree  of 
preliminary  selection,  but  this  in  no  sense  militates 
against  the  truly  remarkable  success  of  Dr.  Wistar  as 
an  examiner.  He  had  a  soundness  of  judgment,  a  spe- 
cialized common  sense,  a  freedom  from  prejudice 
which  prevented  unnecessary  rejection,  while  keeping 
the  Company's  mortality  so  low  as  to  make  it  favorably 
commented  upon  all  over  the  world. 

Joseph  Ashbrook  became  General  Agent  in  Sixth 
month,  1866,  and  shortly  after,  Superintendent  of 
Agencies.  In  1881  he  was  elected  Manager  of  the 
Insurance  Department,  and  in  1906,  Vice  President. 
He  retired  in  1911  to  become  Insurance  Advisor  to 
the  Company.  His  grasp  upon  the  essentials  of  good 
agency  management  was  exceptional  and  noteworthy. 
From  the  start,  an  exceedingly  high  standard  for  agents 
was  inaugurated  by  him.     Only  men  of  ability  and 

[15] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

character  as  well  as  energy  were  permitted  to  represent 
the  Company,  and  they  were  carefully  instructed  and 
trained  by  him  in  the  business.  They  were  imbued 
with  a  sense  of  the  professional  nature  of  their  calling, 
namely,  that  they  were  not  only  responsible  to  the 
Company  for  the  character  of  the  risks  which  they 
presented  to  the  Company,  but  also  responsible  to  their 
clients  for  the  character  of  the  service  which  they 
rendered  these  clients.  They  were  encouraged  to  can- 
vass each  case  intelligently,  in  the  effort  to  fit  the  policy 
to  the  real  needs  of  the  insurer. 

The  agents  had  in  the  first  instance  satisfied  them- 
selves as  to  the  character  of  the  Provident.  They  had 
confidence  in  its  management,  and  approved  of  the 
prudence  and  skill  which  subordinated  a  too  rapid 
growth  to  security  and  a  low  cost  of  insurance.  They 
converted  their  clients  not  only  to  a  belief  in  life  insur- 
ance but  also  to  a  belief  in  the  Provident.  During  the 
dark  years  between  1873  and  1879,  when  the  total  of 
life  insurance  in  force  as  reported  to  the  New  York 
Department  dropped  from  $2,086,000,000  to  $1,440,- 
000,000,  the  business  of  no  other  company  showed  so 
great  a  stability.  During  this  period,  the  record  of 
the  Provident  was  unique  in  the  steadiness  of  its 
growth. 

William  C.  Longstreth  was  elected  Vice  President, 
Sixth  month  3rd,  1867.  From  its  organization,  he  had 
given  the  Provident,  as  a  Director,  the  benefit  of  his 
experience,  which  had  been  large  and  varied,  espe- 

[16] 


JOSEPH  ASHBROOK 
Superintendent  of  Agencies,  1866 
Manager  of  Insurance  Department,  1881 
Vice  President  and  Director,  1906.     Insurance  Advisor, 


1911 


FIFTY  YEARS 

daily  in  connection  with  railroads.  His  diligence  in 
the  performance  of  his  duty  and  his  affability  in  its 
exercise  contributed  largely  to  the  success  of  the  Com- 
pany until  his  death,  fourteen  years  later. 

The  Company  had  also  been  fortunate  in  its  Legal 
Adviser,  Joseph  B.  Townsend,  of  whom  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  in  1896,  the  Board  was  to  say:  "For  more 
than  thirty  years  he  had  been  the  constant  friend  of  the 
Company.  His  wise  counsel  and  steady  interest  in  its 
affairs  contributed  greatly  to  its  success." 

In  1865,  the  Provident  had  applied  for  permission 
to  do  business  in  Massachusetts.  No  other  Pennsyl- 
vania life  insurance  company  had  yet  been  admitted 
to  do  business  in  that  state,  and 

"the  fact  of  so  young  a  company's  taking  the  initiative, 
and  submitting  itself  to  the  official  scrutiny  of  a  depart- 
ment conceded  to  be  so  severe  in  its  requirements,  gave 
the  Provident  an  immediate  footing  in  the  best  insur- 
ance circles  everywhere." 

On  Seventh  month  15th,  1868,  the  Provident  was  ad- 
mitted to  New  York,  being  here,  too,  the  earliest  among 
Pennsylvania  life  companies ;  it  was  not  until  1869  that 
it  was  joined  by  one  other. 

In  1871,  the  capital  of  the  Company  was  increased 
from  $150,000  to  $500,000.  On  First  month  1st,  1873, 
the  Company  moved  into  its  new  iron-front  building 
at  No.  108  South  Fourth  Street,  three  stories  high, 
with  a  front  of  44  feet  and  a  depth  of  64  feet,  Addison 
Hutton  being  the  architect. 

[17] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

On  Fourth  month  7th,  1873,  Asa  S.  Wing,  who  had 
been  connected  with  the  Company  since  Third  month 
16th,  1867,  was  elected  Assistant  Actuary.  Upon  the 
death  of  William  C.  Longstreth,  he  became  Vice  Presi- 
dent, Fifth  month  9th,  1881,  continuing  with  the  Vice 
Presidency  the  office  of  Actuary,  vacated  somewhat 
later  by  the  retirement  of  Rowland  Parry,  and  in  1906, 
when  Samuel  R.  Shipley  declined  a  re-election,  he  was 
elected  President. 

It  was  a  peculiarity  of  the  organization  of  the  Com- 
pany that  it  did  not  have  a  Secretary  or  Treasurer  until 
1899.  In  the  Provident,  the  duties  of  the  Actuary  com- 
prised not  only  the  onerous  task  of  computing  premium 
rates,  calculating  dividends  and  valuing  policies,  but, 
in  addition,  the  exceedingly  delicate  duty  of  passing 
upon  all  assignments  and  of  settling  all  claims;  and 
it  also  included  the  responsibility  for  all  the  accounting 
of  the  Company  and  for  its  statements,  for  the  safe- 
keeping of  its  securities,  and  for  the  receipt  and  pay- 
ment of  all  monies.  It  was  in  this  Spartan  school  that 
the  present  executive  of  the  Provident  received  a  many- 
sided  training  which  was  invaluable  both  to  him  and 
to  the  Company,  since  it  afforded  him  an  intimate  and 
first-hand  acquaintance  with  details,  while  at  the  same 
time  it  gave  him  a  comprehensive  grasp  of  the  general 
policy  of  the  Company. 

It  has  frequently  been  remarked  of  Asa  S.  Wing 
that  he  possessed  to  an  unusual  degree  the  faculty  of 
instantaneous  concentration  upon  each  new  problem 

[18] 


ROWLAND  PARRY 

Actuary  from  1865  to  1882 


FIFTY  YEARS 

that  confronted  him,  and  then  of  turning  his  mind 
with  immediate  detachment  as  a  search-light  upon  the 
next  question  presented,  constantly  guided  by  a  scru- 
pulous sense  of  his  responsibility. 

Succeeding  a  president  who  had,  so  to  speak,  cre- 
ated the  Company,  President  Wing  has  been  judged  by 
an  exceptionally  high  standard  of  achievement,  but 
has  given  abundant  proof  of  his  ability  to  keep  the 
Company  true  to  the  principles  of  the  founders,  while 
alert  to  apply  these  principles  to  new  and  changed 
conditions,  and  thus  to  maintain  continuously  the  vig- 
orous growth  of  the  Company. 


[19] 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FIRST  TWENTY  YEARS 

But  to  return  to  the  earlier  days.  The  first  Finance 
Committee,  composed  of  Joshua  H.  Morris  (soon  to  be 
succeeded  by  William  C.  Longstreth),  Richard  Wood 
and  T.  Wistar  Brown,  was  elected  Seventh  month  18th, 
1865;  and  on  Seventh  month  24th,  an  Insurance  Com- 
mittee composed  of  Richard  Cadbury,  Henry  Haines 
and  William  C.  Longstreth  recommended  forms  and 
tables  and  a  provision  that  the  "profits"  of  the  life 
insurance  branch  should  inure  to  the  benefit  of  the 
policyholders,  less  the  expenses  of  the  corporation. 
The  first  mention  in  the  Minutes  of  an  agency  force 
is  on  Eighth  month  14th,  when  the  President  reported 
the  employment  of  Eusebius  Townsend  as  Agent  for 
West  Chester,  Pa.,  and  of  Caleb  W.  Kimber  for  Phil- 
adelphia. On  Tenth  month  9th,  1865,  there  is  a  report 
of  "the  engagement  on  trial  of  Joseph  R.  Smith  as 
City  Canvasser,"  and  a  month  later  that  he  had  given 
up  the  position  "for  physical  disability  after  a  trial 
of  one  and  a  half  weeks."  The  economy  of  those  early 
days  is  seen  in  "the  purchase  on  very  favorable  terms 
from  the  North  American  Transit  Insurance  Company 
of  the  desks  and  office  furniture  required  for  the  new 
office  at  111  South  Fourth  Street."    It  was  in  this  new 

[20] 


DR.  THOMAS  WISTAR 

Chief  Medical  Examiner,  1865-1904 

Emeritus,  1904-1913 


FIFTY  YEARS 

office  that  the  first  annual  meeting  of  the  Stockholders 
took  place,  First  month  2nd,  1866,  with  Jeremiah 
Hacker  in  the  chair,  when  they  learned  that  seventy 
policies  had  been  issued,  insuring  $324,000,  involving 
premiums  of  $1 1,220.73,  and  that  the  deposits  amounted 
to  $78,109.69. 

The  first  dividend  of  three  per  cent,  on  the  capital 
stock  was  declared  Sixth  month  4th,  1866.  Elizur 
Wright,  the  eminent  Actuary  of  Boston,  was  called 
in  for  consultation  in  Eighth  month,  and  later  in  the 
year,  an  arrangement  was  entered  into  at  fifty  dollars 
per  annum  with  the  Fidelity  Insurance  and  Safe  De- 
posit Company,  for  safe-keeping  the  chest  containing 
the  securities  of  the  Company,  which  had  previously 
been  kept  in  the  vault  of  the  Central  National  Bank 
through  the  courtesy  of  its  officers.  The  General  State- 
ment of  First  month  1st,  1867,  showed  insurance  in 
force  of  $1,658,400,  premium  income  of  $82,531.70  and 
death  losses  of  $13,000.  The  deposits  had  risen  to 
$246,792.82.  The  issuance  of  policies  on  the  premium 
note  plan  was  abandoned  Sixth  month  25th,  1867,  and 
on  Eighth  month  5th,  the  premiums  on  limited  payment 
life  and  endowment  policies  were  reduced.  At  the 
same  time  it  was  decided  to  commence  to  pay  dividends, 
Seventh  month  1st,  1869,  on  all  policies  on  which  two 
or  more  annual  premiums  had  been  paid,  applicable 
to  the  next  annual  premium  and  annually  thereafter. 
The  Statement  of  First  month  1st,  1868,  showed  insur- 
ance  in   force   of   $4,027,250,    insurance    income    of 

[21] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

$139,574.80  and  death  losses  of  $16,500.  The  Presi- 
dent's Report  contained  the  incisive  explanation  that 
"the  cost  of  insurance  depends  solely  on  the  selection 
of  good  lives,  the  economy  with  which  the  affairs  are 
managed  and  the  judicious  investment  of  the  funds 
accumulated,"  and  went  on  to  say:  "We  think  it  will 
be  evident  that  these  conditions  are  fulfilled  in  this 
Company."  During  the  year,  William  C.  Longstreth 
was  given  six  months'  leave  of  absence  to  travel  in 
Europe,  and  Anthony  W.  Kimber  was  elected  to  serve 
as  Vice  President  pro  tern.  It  was  decided  that  the 
dividends  to  policyholders  should  be  paid  upon  the 
"contribution"  plan. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  for  some  months  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Board  were  held  at  seven  o'clock  in  the 
evening  "at  such  place  as  the  President  shall  judge 
expedient,"  that  of  Twelfth  month  14th,  1868,  being 
held  at  the  President's  then  residence,  1623  Filbert 
Street.  For  the  computation  of  its  first  dividend,  the 
policies  were  valued  upon  the  American  Table  with 
4j^%  interest,  and  on  Sixth  month  4th,  1869,  a  divi- 
dend to  policyholders  of  $28,364.02  was  declared, 
which  in  the  case  of  life  policies  approximated  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  annual  premium.  Reversionary 
additions  were  provided  for  on  Eleventh  month  8th, 
1869,  and  at  the  following  meeting  of  the  Board,  the 
amount  which  would  be  carried  on  one  life  was  raised 
from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  with  provision 

[22] 


JOSEPH  B.  TOWNSEND 
Counsel.     Died  1896 


.  ' 


FIFTY  YEARS 

for  further  increase  to  twenty  thousand  with  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Finance  Committee. 

The  policyholders'  dividend  which  was  declared 
on  Sixth  month  6th,  1870,  was  $51,689,  as  compared 
with  $28,364.02  for  the  previous  year.  At  the  same 
time,  it  was  resolved  "that  in  accordance  with  the  action 
of  the  special  meeting  of  the  Stockholders  held  on  the 
24th  ult.  at  which  it  was  agreed  to  increase  the  capi- 
tal stock  to  the  amount  of  $500,000,  books  of  subscrip- 
tion be  opened  in  which  each  stockholder  may  subscribe 
for  his  pro  rata  share  of  the  whole  amount  to  be 
issued,"  and  "that  an  instalment  of  $5  per  share  of 
the  new  stock  shall  be  paid  at  the  time  of  subscription, 
and  that  a  further  instalment  of  $10  per  share  shall 
be  called  for  the  first  day  of  Eleventh  month  next." 

On  Eleventh  month  7th,  1870,  it  was  resolved  to 
take  the  necessary  steps  to  enlarge  the  Board  of  Direct- 
ors to  fifteen  members. 

The  Sixth  Annual  Report,  dated  First  month  1st, 
1871,  cited  upon  the  cover  the  following  General 
Agencies : 

William  Smedley  Office  of  the  Company 

Robert  Lindley  Murray  No.  15  Broadway,  New  York 

David  N.  Holway  No.  33  Arcade,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Samuel  L.  Baily  No.  13  E.  State  St.,  Trenton,  N.  J. 

Gilbert  C.  Hoag  No.  33  Old  State  House,  Boston 

Walter  K.  Halstead  No.  134  W.  Fourth  St.,  Cincinnati 

with  Joseph  Ashbrook  as  Superintendent  of  Agencies 

[23] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

Although  Paris  was  in  a  state  of  siege  when  this 
report  was  written,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  no  men- 
tion is  made  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  but  "the 
general  depression  and  decline  in  trade  and  manu- 
factures" is  adverted  to,  and  satisfaction  is  expressed 
that  new  insurances  had  increased  and  "our  anticipa- 
tions in  regard  to  the  maintenance  of  the  policies  here- 
tofore issued  have  been  more  than  realized."  The 
total  insurance  in  force  had  now  reached  $9,388,400, 
with  insurance  income  of  $503,902.43,  and  insurance 
assets  of  $1,158,939.25,  inclusive  of  the  capital  stock 
of  $500,000. 

On  Tenth  month  6th,  1873,  it  is  reported  in  the 
Minutes  that  "the  President  made  an  oral  statement 
of  the  position  of  the  Company  and  how  it  had  been 
affected  during  the  recent  financial  troubles."  This, 
of  course,  was  the  panic  resulting  from  the  Jay  Cooke 
failure.  One  month  later,  provision  was  made  for  a 
valuation  of  the  securities  of  the  Company  at  market 
values  as  of  Twelfth  month  31st,  and  the  charging  off 
to  interest  account  of  any  depreciation  from  cost  price 
as  hitherto  listed,  but  this  valuation  showed  that  market 
values,  so  far  as  the  Company's  securities  were  con- 
cerned, differed  so  slightly  from  the  cost  prices  at  which 
they  had  been  listed,  that  no  change  was  necessary. 
The  Annual  Report  stated  that,  although  "the  temper 
of  the  times  has  been  adverse  for  several  months  past, 
and  the  year  throughout  has  been  far  from  prosperous 
with  the  general  community,  .  .  .  policies  for  the  sum 

[24] 


'  j 

1 

If 

•  'j  1 

1 

J  1 

iypJR.ll 

Office  for  Organization 
247  South  Third  Street 


Second  Office,  1866  to  1872 
111  South  Fourth  Street 


Third  Office,  1873  to  1879 
Company's  Building,  108  South  Fourth  Street 


FIFTY  YEARS 

of  $4,582,726  have  been  written,  making  an  increase 
of  more  than  fifty  per  cent,  over  the  business  of  any 
previous  year;  ...  an  omen  of  yet  larger  figures  in 
the  near  future." 

Early  in  1874,  provision  was  made  that  "the  Board 
of  Directors  shall  go  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  at 
least  once  in  each  semi-annual  period,  when  sub-com- 
mittees shall  be  appointed  out  of  the  members  of  the 
Board  not  serving  as  officers  of  the  Company  or  as 
members  of  the  Finance  Committee,  who  shall  care- 
fully investigate  the  securities  belonging  to  the  Insur- 
ance, Trust  and  Stock  Departments,  and  report  the 
result  of  their  examination  at  the  next  stated  meeting 
of  the  Board."  Leave  of  absence  for  eight  months  was 
granted  the  President,  who  sailed  for  Europe  in  Eighth 
month. 

The  full  significance  of  the  continuous  growth  of 
the  Company  cannot  be  fully  appreciated  without  re- 
calling the  nature  of  the  period  within  which  it  took 
place.  The  Provident  was  incorporated  eighteen  days 
before  Lee  surrendered  at  Appomattox.  It  was  unaf- 
fected by  the  "Black  Friday"  panic  of  Ninth  month 
24th,  1869,  when  the  gold  market  was  cornered  and 
its  price  rose  to  162*4,  and  by  the  greater  panic  of  1873 
which  was  felt  the  more  acutely  in  Philadelphia,  since 
it  was  brought  on  by  the  failure  of  the  Philadelphia 
firm  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  The  Provident  had  been  in 
existence  fourteen  years  when  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment resumed  specie  payment  in  1879.    The  dangers 

[25] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

of  the  period,  however,  were  not  all  inseparable 
from  the  general  financial  conditions.  The  public 
had  no  just  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  life  insur- 
ance business.  No  wholesome  public  sentiment  had 
arisen  in  regard  to  it.  The  expansion  of  the  business 
which  occurred  in  the  sixties  was  phenomenal,  but  it 
was  attended  with  few  of  the  safeguards  which  a  later 
generation  has  come  to  regard  as  essential.  In  1860, 
seventeen  companies  reported  to  the  State  of  New 
York  56,046  policies  insuring  $163,703,455;  in  1865, 
thirty  companies  reported  209,392  policies  insuring 
$580,882,253.  In  1873,  the  number  of  companies  had 
risen  to  fifty-six,  the  number  of  policies  to  817,081, 
and  the  amount  in  force  to  $2,086,027,178.  What  fol- 
lowed might  well  be  termed  an  insurance  panic,  for  in 
1879,  the  companies  reporting  to  the  New  York  De- 
partment were  only  thirty-two  in  number,  with  595,486 
policies  insuring  $1,439,961,165.  The  Provident  Report 
for  1877  commented  upon  the  situation  as  follows: 
"Certain  other  companies  had  their  rise  in  personal 
greed  and  ambition.  Men  of  no  moral  standing  ob- 
tained the  control,  and,  as  the  receipts  were  large  and 
the  outgo  for  a  long  period  moderate,  their  aims  were  of 
easy  attainment.  In  the  face  of  this  difference  in  the 
character  and  standing  of  the  companies,  little  or  no 
examination  into  their  relative  merits  was  practiced.  It 
was  sufficient  that  a  company  paraded  a  long  display  of 
names  in  the  list  of  its  officers  and  managers,  and  that 
it  claimed  to  be  possessed  of  large  assets,  and  to  be 

[26] 


a 

£ 

o 
U 


FIFTY  YEARS 

doing  an  enormous  business  whose  limits  were  only 
bounded  by  the  continent.  Men  took  policies  in  com- 
panies which  they  had  never  even  heard  of  until  the 
day  of  decision.  The  glamour  of  a  promise  to  pay 
large  sums  in  return  for  the  moderate  premium  de- 
manded seemed  to  have  overcome  all  the  consideration 
of  prudence  which  men  are  prone  to  regard  in  their 
business  affairs.  For  nearly  a  generation  all  discrimi- 
nation in  matters  affecting  the  integrity  and  well- 
being  of  the  companies  has  been  thought  unnecessary 
or  neglected  in  too  many  cases.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
this  unwise  confidence  has  bred  a  plentiful  crop  of 
disaster? 

"The  control  of  such  institutions  surely  ought  to 
be  in  hands  clear  of  all  reproach.  Those  who  manage 
them  ought  to  be  not  only  experienced  and  able,  but 
men  full  of  the  solemn  responsibilities  of  their  calling. 
It  follows  equally  that  those  who  insure  should  be  clear 
that  the  companies  chosen  by  them  for  so  long  and 
delicate  a  trust  are  controlled  by  men  of  whom  they 
already  have  or  can  obtain  intimate  knowledge.  In 
view,  then,  of  these  considerations,  is  it  fair  to  inscribe 
fraud  and  failure  upon  a  system  which  has  answered 
a  beneficent  end  in  many  thousands  of  cases,  because 
the  community  has  unwisely  trusted  a  few  worthless 
and  irresponsible  institutions?  To  those  who  have  the 
most  intimate  knowledge  of  its  workings,  the  system 
needs  no  defense." 

[27] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

Statistics  show  that  of  the  companies  which  sur- 
vived the  panic,  twelve  years  was  required  on  the 
average  to  bring  up  the  insurance  in  force  to  what  it 
had  been  when  the  decline  set  in.  During  this  period, 
as  has  already  been  stated,  the  experience  of  the  Provi- 
dent was  unique.  Only  one  year,  1877,  showed  a  de- 
cline, from  $20,847,199  to  $20,707,581,  which  was  made 
up  in  1878  with  insurance  in  force  of  $20,984,554. 
Such  a  showing  was  not  fortuitous,  nor  was  it  based 
merely  upon  the  confidence  which  was  rightly  felt  in 
the  officers  and  directors  of  the  Company,  of  whom  a 
large  number  of  policyholders  had  a  personal  knowl- 
edge. It  was  due  also  to  the  unexceptionable  methods 
which  had  been  employed  in  the  Agency  Department 
of  the  Company.  Life  insurance  had  been  sold  upon 
its  intrinsic  merits.  The  leaflets  of  the  Company  had 
not  overstated  the  advantages  of  insurance,  and  had 
clearly  defined  its  function.  The  President  in  his 
reports  had  carefully  explained  that  the  so-called 
"profits"  were  merely  the  savings  which  might  be  de- 
rived from  economy  in  management,  careful  selection 
of  risks,  and  prudence  and  sagacity  in  investments.  The 
wisdom  of  such  a  course  was  amply  demonstrated  by 
the  result.  The  policy  of  the  Company  had  been  vigor- 
ous and  energetic,  at  the  same  time  that  it  had  been 
conservative.  It  entered  upon  the  second  phase  of  its 
career,  tried  in  the  severest  test,  and  not  found  wanting. 

"The  Mortality  Experience  of  the  Provident  Life 
and  Trust  Company  of  Philadelphia  for  the  Years 

[28] 


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FIFTY  YEARS 

1866  to  1877  inclusive,  as  compared  with  the  Probable 
Experience  by  the  American  Experience  Table  of 
Mortality,  computed  by  Asa  S.  Wing,  Assistant  Actu- 
ary," was  published  in  1879.  This  showed  by  years, 
on  an  average  amount  exposed  aggregating  $136,730,- 
437,  a  probable  amount  to  be  terminated  by  death  of 
$1,517,908,002,  whereas  the  actual  amount  terminated 
was  only  $996,159,  being  65-6/10  per  cent.,  the  figures 
by  number  of  policies  showing  the  total  number  of 
policies  to  be  46,539,  the  probable  number  to  be  termi- 
nated by  death  511  and  the  actual  number  331,  being 
only  64-7/10  per  cent.  Further  tables  gave  the  fig- 
ures for  each  age,  and  also  in  groups  of  five  ages, 
both  by  policies  and  by  amounts,  the  latter  illustrated 
by  colored  charts.  Commenting  upon  this,  Elizur 
Wright,  the  famous  Massachusetts  Actuary,  said  that 
it  was  "a  remarkable  and  interesting  document.  .  .  . 
It  indicates  that  either  the  selection  of  lives  has  been 
careful  and  judicious,  or  that  the  business  has  been 
sought  chiefly  among  people  of  peculiarly  good  sani- 
tary habits.  I  am  inclined  to  think  both  causes  have 
operated." 

There  is  a  proverb  that  the  happiest  nation  has  no 
history.  It  is  true  of  the  Provident  that  its  history  is 
singularly  lacking  in  salient  points  which  can  be  taken 
by  the  historian  as  decisive  or  epoch-making.  Its  basic 
idea  had  been  that  careful  living  promoted  longevity, 
and  that  those  living  careful  lives  were  entitled  to  have 
the  cost  of  their  insurance  reduced  by  the  greater  mor- 
tal 


FIFTY  YEARS 

tality  savings  resulting  from  their  superior  longevity. 
To  obtain  policyholders  of  this  class  it  was  seen  to  be 
necessary  to  employ  a  superior  class  of  agents.  The 
task  was  not  an  easy  one.  The  calling  had  fallen  into 
disrepute.  There  had  always  been  agents  distinguished 
alike  for  probity  and  for  ability,  but  the  wild  scramble 
during  the  previous  decade  had  witnessed  the  enlist- 
ment of  too  many  who  discredited  the  business,  so  that 
the  sins  of  these  had  obscured  the  virtues  of  the  better 
class  of  able  and  upright  men.  It  was  a  notable  achieve- 
ment of  the  Provident,  that  from  the  beginning  it 
insisted  upon  a  conspicuously  high  standard  for  its 
representatives.  The  Company  conceived  it  a  duty  to 
those  whom  it  hoped  to  insure,  that  the  agents  whom  it 
sent  out  to  represent  the  Company  should  be  men  of 
integrity,  ability  and  force,  who  had  been  well 
grounded  in  the  business  and  who  regarded  their  work 
as  a  profession  worthy  of  their  enthusiastic  devotion. 
The  conception  was  not  novel,  but  the  consistency  with 
which  it  was  carried  out  has  won  a  recognition  among 
life  insurance  men  which  has  been  generous  and  wide- 
spread. Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  re- 
sponsibility placed  upon  its  agents.  It  was  required 
that  each  risk  presented  should  be  accompanied  by  a 
personal  recommendation,  and  this  had  the  effect  of  a 
preliminary  selection  by  the  agent,  and  thus  favorably 
influenced  the  mortality  of  the  Company.  The  agent 
was  also  charged  with  the  responsibility  of  advising 
the  form  of  policy  which  would  most  nearly  meet  the 

[30] 


Fourth  Office,  Company's  Building 

(Completed  Third  Month  1st,  1879) 

409  Chestnut  Street 


FIFTY  YEARS 

needs  of  his  client.  The  result  was  reflected  in  the  low 
lapse  rate  of  the  Company  to  which  the  President  fre- 
quently referred  in  his  earlier  reports. 

To  the  enthusiastic  and  devoted  work  of  a  small 
but  growing  force  of  agents  was  due  the  exceedingly 
rapid  growth  of  the  insurance  business  of  the  Company. 
In  1880,  the  amount  in  force  had  been  $25,755,451. 
In  six  years  it  had  approximately  doubled,  the  figures 
for  1886  being  $50,914,268,  and  in  eight  years  more  it 
had  again  doubled,  the  figures  for  1894  being  $103,- 
671,924. 

In  the  six  years  which  elapsed  since  1873,  the 
growth  of  the  Company  had  been  so  rapid  that  larger 
quarters  were  required  and  in  Third  month,  1879,  the 
office  was  removed  to  the  striking  building  at  No.  409 
Chestnut  Street,  which  had  been  designed  for  its  use 
by  Furness  and  Evans. 

With  the  election  of  Asa  S.  Wing  to  the  Vice  Presi- 
dency in  1881  and  of  Joseph  Ashbrook  to  the  Manager- 
ship of  the  Insurance  Department,  J.  Roberts  Foulke 
was  elected  Trust  Officer.  The  latter  had  been  con- 
nected with  the  Trust  Department  since  Fifth  month, 
1873,  and  the  title  now  conferred  was  merely  an  appro- 
priate recognition  of  the  responsible  duties  which  the 
growth  of  the  Department  involved.  Genial  in  his 
understanding  of  the  clientele  of  the  Company  and 
with  a  remarkable  capacity  for  painstaking  work,  he 
combined  with  this  a  comprehension  of  the  fiduciary 
nature  of  his  task  and  a  watchfulness  which  enabled 

[31] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

him  to  safeguard  the  best  interests  of  the  clients  of  the 
Department,  winning  confidence  in  his  probity  and  in- 
tegrity. He  is  still  at  the  head  of  the  Department,  the 
continued  growth  of  which  has  necessitated  much  spe- 
cialized subdivision  to  maintain  an  effective  service. 

In  1883  the  capital  was  raised  from  $500,000  to 
$1,000,000,  the  additional  amount  being  paid  in  in  full. 

First  month  14th,  1884,  T.  Wistar  Brown  was 
elected  Vice  President.  He  had  been  largely  respon- 
sible for  the  organization  of  the  Company,  had  been 
an  active  member  of  the  Board  from  the  beginning, 
and  had  rendered  invaluable  service  as  Chairman 
of  its  Committee  on  Finance  and  Accounts.  Deeply 
interested  in  the  success  of  the  Company,  he  has 
always  given  generously  of  his  time  throughout  his 
fifty  years  of  service,  for  not  only  has  he  put  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Board  his  financial  ability  in  a  consci- 
entious and  painstakingly  detailed  supervision  of  its 
investments  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Finance 
and  Accounts,  but  he  has  also  allowed  himself  to  be 
called  on  constantly  for  advice  upon  other  matters  of 
more  general  policy,  so  that  he  has  always  had  a  large 
share  in  shaping  its  destiny;  and  no  history  of  the 
Company  would  be  complete  without  insistence  upon 
the  value  of  his  service. 

On  Fourth  month  6th,  1885,  Samuel  Dickson  was 
elected  Associate  Counsel,  and  on  Third  month  8th, 
1886,  Lewis  P.  Geiger  was  elected  Auditor.  On 
Eleventh  month  4th,    1889,   the   Board   marked   the 

[32] 


HENRY  HAINES 
Director,  elected  1865.     Died  1905 


RICHARD  CADBURY 
Director,  elected  1865.     Died  1897 


RICHARD  WOOD 
Director,  elected  1865.     Resigned  1910 


JOSHUA  H.  MORRIS 
Director,  elected  1865.     Died  1885 


FIFTY  YEARS 

twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  Company  by  asking 
Mr.  Shipley  to  permit  his  portrait  to  be  placed  upon 
the  walls  of  the  office. 

On  Twelfth  month  7th,  1891,  a  resolution  was 
passed  to  establish  safe-deposit  vaults.  At  the  same 
time,  J.  Barton  Townsend  was  elected  Assistant  Trust 
Officer. 

In  1892,  the  Insurance  Department  was  moved  to 
the  corner  of  Chestnut  and  Fourth  Streets,  in  the  first 
floor  of  the  large  and  commodious  building  which  had 
been  erected  in  1890,  adjoining  the  office  at  No.  409 
Chestnut  Street,  and  which  has  since  been  considerably 
enlarged,  so  that  it  extends  through  to  Ranstead  Street. 

On  First  month  9th,  1899,  Samuel  H.  Troth  was 
elected  Treasurer,  David  G.  Alsop,  Actuary,  and  C. 
Walter  Borton,  Secretary. 


f33] 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  DEFERRED  DIVIDENDS 

The  twenty-year  period  beginning  in  1885  was 
crucial  in  American  life  insurance.  The  worst  effects 
of  the  insurance  panic  had  worn  off,  and  an  enormous 
expansion  ensued.  As  a  result  of  the  disasters  in  the 
seventies,  a  rigorous  supervision  as  to  solvency  had  been 
instituted  in  the  various  states,  which  performed  its 
original  function  admirably.  But  this  original  func- 
tion was  soon  lost  sight  of.  It  had  been  thought  that 
if  the  several  states,  through  the  requirement  of  an 
annual  accounting,  confirmed  by  periodical  examina- 
tion, should  certify  to  the  solvency  of  a  company, 
public  opinion  could  be  relied  upon  to  discriminate 
between  companies  which,  by  economy,  wise  selection 
of  lives  and  sagacious  investment,  afforded  insurance  at 
minimum  cost,  and  other  companies  less  economically 
managed,  less  careful  in  their  selection  of  risks,  and 
obtaining  less  favorable  results  upon  their  investments. 
This  theory,  however,  broke  down.  Public  opinion 
did  not  discriminate.  It  ceased  to  think  of  supervision 
as  concerning  itself  solely  with  solvency,  which  had 
been  the  original  intention,  and  deluded  itself  with  the 
idea  that  the  official  approval  of  a  company's  solvency 
carried  with  it  an  approval  of  the  practices  of  the  com- 

[34] 


CHARLES  F.  COFFIN 

Director,  elected  1865.     Resigned  1879 


JEREMIAH  HACKER 
Director,  elected  1865.     Died  1866 


WILLIAM    HACKER 
Director,  elected  1866.     Died  1898 


FRANCIS  T.   KING 
Director,  elected  1871.     Resigned  1877 


FIFTY  YEARS 

i 
pany  in  matters  not  concerning  solvency,  an  idea  which 

was  foreign  to  the  intention  of  the  law.  This  delusion 
was  fostered  by  the  surprising  growth  of  the  practice 
of  deferring  dividends.  With  dividends  payable  annu- 
ally, policyholders  could  test  each  year  for  themselves 
the  actual  net  cost  at  which  they  were  obtaining  their 
insurance.  With  dividends  deferred  twenty  years,  such 
a  test  was  impossible,  for  the  policyholder  could  not 
ascertain  until  the  end  of  the  twenty  years  of  deferment 
whether  the  results  were  in  keeping  with  the  estimate 
upon  which  his  policy  had  been  sold.  The  estimates 
were  based  not  only  upon  the  abnormally  high  rates  of 
interest  which  had  prevailed  in  the  preceding  twenty- 
year  period  which  followed  the  war,  but  also  upon  the 
abnormal  lapse  rate  which  had  prevailed  during  the 
insurance  panic;  for  under  the  deferred  dividend 
plan,  those  who  died  or  lapsed  before  the  completion 
of  the  deferred  period,  were  not  entitled  to  their  accu- 
mulated dividends,  which  were  divided  among  the  per- 
sistent survivors  at  the  end  of  the  period.  The  public 
failed  to  discriminate  between  the  guaranteed  value 
of  the  policy,  which  the  law  protected  through  its  pro- 
vision for  solvency,  and  the  estimated  surplus  value  at 
the  end  of  the  deferred  period,  over  which  the  law 
exercised  no  jurisdiction.  Not  only  were  the  estimates 
impossible  of  fulfillment,  but  the  unnecessary  accumu- 
lation of  dividends  led  to  an  increasing  extravagance 
in  agency  management. 

[35] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

This  explanation  is  necessary  to  a  comprehension 
of  the  position  occupied  by  the  Provident  during  the 
period  beginning  in  1885  and  ending  with  the  Insur- 
ance Investigation  of  twenty  years  later.  It  is  difficult 
to  understand  the  laxity  of  public  opinion  during  this 
long  period.  The  abuses  which  were  prevalent  could 
have  been  checked  much  more  satisfactorily  by  an 
enlightened  public  opinion  than  by  the  legislation 
which  ultimately  found  its  way  upon  the  statute  books. 
Public  opinion,  however,  refused  to  take  cognizance  of 
the  fact  that  the  enormously  increased  expenditure 
would  ultimately  have  to  be  paid  for  by  the  policy- 
holders themselves,  and  that  this  would  still  further 
reduce  dividends  which  had  been  estimated  upon  for- 
mer conditions  which  could  not  again  be  realized.  The 
deferred  system  seemed  to  be  carrying  all  before  it.  Its 
prodigious  growth  seemed  an  answer  to  criticism. 

For  those  who  felt  that  the  disadvantages  of  the 
deferred  system  to  the  insured  much  more  than  counter- 
balanced mere  rapidity  of  growth,  it  was  a  trying 
period.  The  management  of  the  Provident  had  from 
the  first  decided  that  the  deferred  system  was  repug- 
nant to  the  fundamental  idea  of  life  insurance,  and  held 
resolutely  to  the  annual  dividend  principle.  It  required 
courage  and  no  mean  order  of  ability  to  adhere  to  this 
resolution.  The  insuring  public  seemed  determined  to 
take  deferred  dividend  estimates  at  par.  The  compa- 
nies had  entered  into  a  race  for  volume,  and  the  com- 
petition for  agents  forced  up  the  rates  of  commission 

[36] 


MURRAY  SHIPLEY 
Director,  elected  1871.     Resigned  1886 


CHARLES  HARTSHORNE 
Director,  elected  1874.     Died  1908 


JOHN   B.  GARRETT 
Director,  elected  1871.     Resigned  1879 


PHILIP  C.  GARRETT 
Director,  elected  1882.     Died  1905 


FIFTY  YEARS 

to  an  indefensible  figure,  which  led  to  rebating.  To 
obtain  agents  at  a  much  lower  rate  of  commission,  to 
sell  what  seemed  a  less  popular  form  of  insurance  with- 
out rebate,  was  a  task  which  might  well  have  seemed 
hopeless. 

The  Management  of  the  Provident,  however,  did 
not  despair.  The  agents  were  of  no  common  fibre,  and 
had  been  exceptionally  well  trained.  They  were  thor- 
oughly convinced  that  they  were  on  the  right  side,  and 
were  filled  with  an  enthusiasm  which  was  invincible 
in  competition.  Their  pulses  still  quicken  as  they  think 
of  those  stirring  days ;  the  contest  evoked  all  that  was 
best  in  them.  With  redoubled  effort,  they  refused  to  be 
dismayed  by  the  odds  against  them,  for  the  number  of 
companies  which  were  opposed  to  the  deferred  system 
was  so  exceedingly  small,  and  the  growth  of  the  cham- 
pions of  the  system  was  so  exceedingly  rapid,  that  this 
small  group  seemed  to  be  losing  ground.  The  Provi- 
dent had  taken  eight  years  to  increase  its  insurance  in 
force  from  $50,000,000  to  $100,000,000.  To  increase, 
however,  from  $100,000,000  to  $200,000,000  was  to  take 
fourteen  years.  That  is,  the  actual  annual  growth  was 
somewhat  more  rapid  than  it  had  been,  although  rela- 
tive increase  in  the  rapidity  of  growth  had  been  largely 
checked  by  the  decision  of  the  Management  that  the 
interests  of  the  policyholders  forbade  any  yielding  to 
the  prevalent  demand  for  deferred  dividends. 

During  this  period,  the  annual  reports  of  the  Provi- 
dent contained  exceptionally  able  expositions  of  the 

[37] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

reasonableness  of  the  course  adopted  by  the  Company. 
They  stated  the  case  in  language  that  was  at  the  same 
time  lucid,  vigorous  and  dignified.  The  prognosis  of 
the  danger  entailed  by  the  then-prevalent  abuses  was 
remarkably  accurate.  Turning  back  today  to  those  now 
almost  forgotten  reports,  the  reader  is  strongly  im- 
pressed by  their  grasp  upon  the  real  essentials  of  the 
situation,  by  the  fairness  with  which  these  were  stated, 
and  by  their  clear-sighted  prevision  of  the  future. 

For  instance,  in  the  Report  for  1885  it  was  said: 
"The  (deferred)  system  is  innately  bad,  and  is  a  distinct 
deviation  from  those  principles  of  equity  which,  by 
their  adoption,  had  redeemed  the  business  of  life  insur- 
ance from  the  errors  of  its  earlier  history.  When  the 
craze  for  speculative  insurance  shall  have  spent  its  force, 
the  sense  of  justice  in  the  community  will  demand  that 
the  laws  affecting  the  non-forfeiture  of  both  reserves 
and  dividends  shall  be  re-established  in  all  their  force." 
Again,  in  1888:  "The  Provident  Life  and  Trust  Com- 
pany has,  from  its  origin,  strongly  discouraged  specu- 
lative insurance.  .  .  .  There  is  no  legerdemain  by 
which  profits  can  be  made.  Those  methods  which  are 
open  to  careful  and  capable  investors  are  the  only  safe 
ones." 

Again,  in  1890:  "Believing  that  these  alien  specula- 
tive features  were  inequitable  and  unfair,  and  that  the 
innovations  could  not  be  permanent;  that  they  were 
subversive  of  the  best  interests  of  the  business,  and  that 
they  would  bring  in  their  train  extravagance  and  dis- 

[38] 


'•     •  !> »  J  »  » *     J  ■.    '  '  1    '  1    ^ 


WILLIAM  GUMMERE 
Director,  elected  1877.     Died  1897 


BENJAMIN  V.   MARSH 
Director,  elected  1878.     Died  1882 


FREDERIC  COLLINS 
Director,  elected  1878.     Died  1892 


J.  MORTON  ALBERTSON 
Director,  elected  1879.     Died  1889 


FIFTY  YEARS 

appointment,  they  found  no  place  in  the  business  of  this 
Company." 

In  1895  it  was  urged  "that  a  false  standard  of  deter- 
mining the  successful  management  of  life  insurance 
has  been  set  up  during  the  last  few  years.  It  has  resulted 
in  a  plentiful  crop  of  evils,  and  threatens  to  be  attended 
with  more  mischievous  and  dangerous  consequences  in 
the  future  if  it  is  not  checked  by  popular  opinion.  It 
has  come  to  be  accepted  only  too  generally  that  the 
prosperity  of  a  company  is  dependent  upon  its  rapid 
increase  in  size.  So  far  is  this  from  being  true,  it  is 
susceptible  of  demonstration  that  too  rapid  growth 
lowers  the  standard  of  security  and  increases  the  cost 
of  insurance.  The  increased  cost  in  some  companies 
would  long  since  have  become  evident  to  the  public 
if  the  practice  of  annual  dividends  as  opposed  to  de- 
ferred or  semi-tontine  dividends  had  been  continued. 
When  dividends  are  paid  annually,  the  policyholder 
is  able  to  detect  the  consequences  of  unsuccessful  man- 
agement. But  if,  under  the  temptation  of  possible  gains, 
he  consents  to  forego  his  dividends  for  a  period  of 
twenty  years,  the  consequences  of  extravagance  and 
injudicious  management  are  not  likely  to  come  to  his 
attention." 

In  1897:  "Nothing  is  so  much  needed  today  in  con- 
nection with  the  business  as  an  aroused  and  watchful 
public  opinion.  If  it  were  the  fact  that  the  manage- 
ment of  companies  claimed  the  attention  of  the  vast 
number  of  persons  directly  interested  in  their  safety 

[39] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

and  prosperity,  the  business  would  be  surrounded  by  a 
powerful  and  conservative  influence.  There  has  never 
been  a  period  in  the  history  of  American  Life  Insur- 
ance when  this  influence  was  so  essential  to  the  safety 
and  well-being  of  the  business  as  now." 

In  1902  it  was  pointed  out  that  "an  examination 
of  the  reports  made  to  the  several  State  Insurance  Com- 
missioners discloses  the  remarkable  fact  that  for  the 
last  fifteen  or  twenty  years  the  average  rate  of  expense 
of  many  companies,  including  several  of  those  which 
have  been  distinguished  by  a  rapid  enlargement  of 
their  business,  is  much  greater  than  those  of  other  well- 
known  and  successfully  managed  companies.  In  this, 
there  is  certainly  food  for  reflection.  That  so  grave  a 
condition  has  not  challenged  inquiry  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  companies  referred  to,  whose  rate  of  expense 
has  been  so  abnormally  high,  defer  the  payment  of  divi- 
dends for  a  long  period,  usually  twenty  years.  The  con- 
sequence of  extravagance,  of  an  increased  rate  of  mor- 
tality, and  of  any  other  lack  of  skill  in  management, 
are  thus  concealed  from  policyholders.  Confidence 
in  the  safety  of  the  assumptions  upon  which  the  mag- 
nificent system  of  life  insurance  rests  is  well  deserved, 
but  the  considerations  above  named  suggest  whether 
there  is  not  another  factor  which  those  directly  inter- 
ested in  the  system  as  policyholders  must  supply.  The 
safety  of  the  Company  and  a  low  cost  for  the  protection 
afforded  depend  upon  faithful  and  skillful  administra- 
tion. It  is  a  truism  that  the  business  should  be  man- 
No] 


ISRAEL  MORRIS 
Director,  elected  1879.     Resigned  1901 


JAMES  V.  WATSON 
Director,  elected  1886.     Died  1910 


JUSTUS  C.  STRAWBRIDGE 
Director,  elected  1886.     Resigned  1898 


FREDERIC  H.  STRAWBRIDGE 
Director,  elected  1906 


FIFTY  YEARS 

aged  in  the  interest  of  the  policyholders.  That  this  will 
be  accomplished  depends  in  great  measure  upon  the 
establishment  of  a  correct  standard  in  the  public  mind. 
A  low  expense  rate  and  a  low  mortality  rate  constantly 
maintained,  and  safe,  conservative  business  methods,  are 
better  guides  than  results  which  are  merely  spectacu- 
lar." 

Again,  in  1903 :  "It  should  be  the  business  of  every 
policyholder  to  familiarize  himself  sufficiently  with 
the  principles  of  life  insurance  to  judge  intelligently 
of  the  management  of  the  company  or  companies  in 
which  he  is  insured,  and  not  to  fall  into  a  blind  confi- 
dence or  indifference.  Confidence  is  necessary,  and 
without  it  life  insurance  would  not  exist.  But  equally 
necessary  is  an  enlightened  public  opinion,  the  result 
of  intelligent  observation  and  judgment."  Finally  in 
1905,  just  before  the  New  York  Investigation,  it  was 
urged :  "The  best  way  to  popularize  life  insurance  is  to 
cheapen  the  cost  of  protection  and  to  demonstrate  to 
the  public  that  the  persons  who  are  entrusted  with  the 
administration  of  the  companies  are  imbued  with  a 
proper  sense  of  responsibility  and  are  not  influenced 
in  any  degree  by  selfish  motives.  Life  insurance  has 
such  a  hold  upon  the  confidence  of  the  public,  and  its 
benefits  are  so  widely  known,  that  the  methods  of  the 
bargain  counter*  are  not  necessary  to  stimulate  the 
business.  It  is  much  to  be  desired  that  the  expenses, 
both  of  administration  and  of  procuring  new  business, 

*The  allusion  is  to  the  rebate  evil. 

[41] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

shall  be  promptly  reduced,  as  they  can  be,  if  an  un- 
seemly rivalry  shall  cease  and  companies  be  satisfied 
with  a  gradual  instead  of  a  rapid,  forced  growth." 

The  long  struggle,  however,  was  to  come  to  a  sud- 
den termination  in  a  popular  outburst  which,  in  some 
of  its  phases,  was  as  indiscriminating  as  had  been  the 
previous  laxity  of  opinion  which  had  permitted  the 
growth  of  abuses.  It  was  not  to  the  credit  of  an  Amer- 
ican business  man  who  in  his  own  line  of  business  would 
not  have  granted  a  $100  credit  without  investigating 
the  standing  of  his  customer,  that  in  too  many  instances 
he  had  purchased  a  $100,000  policy  for  the  protection 
of  his  family  with  so  little  scrutiny  that  in  a  week  he  was 
unable  to  remember  the  name  of  the  company  in  which 
he  was  insured,  or  the  kind  of  policy  he  had  selected. 
It  was  a  madness  of  confidence,  suddenly  translated 
into  an  equally  blind  outburst  of  wrath.  In  response 
to  the  popular  demand,  the  New  York  Legislature 
appointed  an  Investigating  Committee  empowered  to 
recommend  legislation,  which  was  voted  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  1906.  Deferred  dividends  were  forbidden 
by  law,  and  drastic  restrictions  were  elaborated  as  to 
expenses,  while  the  production  of  new  business  was 
limited  upon  a  sliding  scale,  and  standard  policy  con- 
ditions were  enforced. 

It  was  a  gratifying  recognition  of  the  economy  with 
which  the  Provident  had  always  been  managed  that  the 
Armstrong  Committee,  in  urging  the  legislation  in  the 
State  of  New  York  aimed  to  limit  expenses,  should 

[42] 


WILLIAM  LONGSTRETH 

Director,  elected  1889 


EDWARD  H.  OGDEN 
Director,  elected  1893.     Died  1903 


THOMAS  SCATTERGOOD 

Director,  elected  1897.     Died  1907 


J.   PRESTON  THOMAS 
Director,  elected  1897.     Died  1905 


FIFTY  YEARS 

have  specifically  named  the  Provident  as  a  company 
which,  as  a  matter  of  good  practice,  had  always  vol- 
untarily kept  its  expenses  within  the  limitation  sought 
to  be  made  compulsory  by  law. 

Summing  up  the  situation,  the  Company's  Report 
covering  the  operations  of  the  year  1906,  said:  "it  is 
interesting  to  inquire,  now  that  there  has  been  time  for 
sober  second  thought,  what  was  brought  to  light  by  the 
many  severe  investigations  to  which  the  business  in 
general  .  .  .  has  been  subjected.  Primarily,  policy- 
holders are  interested  in  the  security  of  life  insurance. 
...  It  must  be  a  source  of  intense  gratification,  that  the 
Armstrong  Committee  and  all  other  committees  have 
announced  in  very  emphatic  terms  that  even  the  com- 
panies that  most  incurred  their  censure  were  perfectly 
sound,  and  that  policyholders  need  feel  no  concern 
respecting  the  safety  of  their  policies.  Second  only  in 
importance  to  the  question  of  security  is  that  of  the  cost 
of  insurance.  Money  was  expended  by  these  companies 
for  the  procurement  of  new  business  without  reference 
to  the  effect  upon  the  cost  of  insurance  to  their  members. 
This  effort  was  kept  from  notice  by  the  system  of  de- 
ferred dividends.  Happily,  the  system  of  deferred 
dividends  is  abandoned,  and  a  policyholder  taking  out 
a  policy  now  will  have  each  year  the  means  of  judging 
of  the  faithful  management  of  the  company  in  which 
he  is  insured." 


[43] 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  PRESENT  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  OFFICE 

In  the  Report  for  1904,  it  was  explained  that  "the 
expression  Trust  Company'  outside  of  Philadelphia 
has  no  fixed  definition,  and  is  therefore  not  descriptive 
of  the  kind  of  business  transacted  here.  A  trust  com- 
pany may  be  a  bank  dealing  in  commercial  paper,  or 
may  have  been  organized  for  the  promotion  of  large 
business  operations,  or  for  'financing'  large  transactions. 
There  would  be  an  incongruity  in  combining  such  a 
business  with  life  insurance,  while  the  trust  business, 
as  it  is  understood  in  Philadelphia,  is  perfectly  homo- 
geneous with  life  insurance:  the  assets  of  the  life 
insurance  company  represent  the  savings  of  men  who 
are  living;  the  assets  of  a  trust  company  represent  the 
savings  of  men  who  are  dead.  As  a  Trust  Company, 
the  Provident  demands  from  the  Courts  of  the  City 
of  Philadelphia  a  careful  scrutiny  of  its  methods,  and 
an  examination  of  its  securities  from  time  to  time  by 
skillful  experts.  It  has  also  upon  it  always  the  watch- 
ful eye  of  the  community.  The  union  of  the  two  kinds 
of  business  in  one  organization  places  life  insurance 
on  the  high  level  of  the  trust  business."  This  state- 
ment is  sufficiently  important  for  amplification.  We 
have  seen  that  in  the  seventies  a  number  of  life  insur- 

[44] 


MARRIOTT  C.   MORRIS 
Director,  elected  1900 


FRANK  H.  TAYLOR 

Director,  elected  1901.     Resigned  1911 


JOHN  T.  EMLEN 
Director,  elected  1907 


MORRIS  R.   BOCKIUS 
Director,  elected  1908 


FIFTY  YEARS 

ance  companies  failed  through  lack  of  the  most  ordi- 
nary safeguards.  Public  opinion  then  compelled  legis- 
lation for  the  strictest  supervision  of  life  insurance  as 
regards  solvency.  But  public  opinion  as  yet  failed  to 
grasp  clearly  the  fact  that  the  fiduciary  responsibility 
resting  upon  the  management  of  a  life  insurance  com- 
pany as  to  expenses,  was  in  its  essence  very  similar  to 
the  responsibility  resting  upon  those  who,  either  in 
an  individual  or  in  a  corporate  capacity,  are  managing 
the  estates  of  persons  deceased,  as  executor,  adminis- 
trator, or  in  any  other  fiduciary  capacity.  The  record 
of  the  Provident  for  economy  in  its  life  insurance 
branch  was  not  fortuitous.  Had  the  Company  shown 
any  symptom  of  extravagance  in  its  Insurance  Depart- 
ment, it  would  have  reacted  unfavorably  in  a  lack  of 
confidence  in  its  Trust  Department  from  which  the 
stockholders  derived  their  profits,  for  even  at  a  time 
when  public  opinion  was  singularly  lax  and  indulgent 
in  its  conception  of  life  insurance,  it  was  already  hold- 
ing the  trust  business  to  a  standard  higher  than  that 
known  in  any  other  business,  and  this  standard  was 
embodied  in  the  law  and  scrupulously  maintained  by 
the  Courts  in  its  interpretation  of  the  law.  The  history 
of  the  Trust  Department  of  the  Provident  must  of 
necessity,  therefore,  vary  from  the  history  of  the  Insur- 
ance Department,  since,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  it  can 
record  no  struggle  against  an  unenlightened  laxity  of 
public  opinion.  The  figures  which  reveal  the  steady 
growth  of  the  Trust  Department  in  the  amount  of  the 

[45] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

trusts  committed  to  its  care,  are  the  most  eloquent  recital 
of  a  constantly  broadening  confidence  in  its  adminis- 
tration, as  the  admirable  efficiency  of  its  service  be- 
came more  widely  known. 

The  assets  belonging  to  Trusts  in  custody  of  the 
Company  were,  at  the  end  of  the  years  mentioned,  as 
follows : 

1874 $1,148,078.58 

1884 17,341,372.66 

1894 42,135,225.23 

1904 59,412,548.32 

1914 85,134,905.27 

Analyzing  the  figures  for  the  year  1914,  we  find  the 
assets  classified  as  follows: 

Bonds $22,147,650.42 

Mortgages 19,676,276.88 

Real  Estate 930,638.38 

Miscellaneous 492,070.15 

Unassigned  Balances 798,639.08 

Corporations 40,734,833.71 

Uninvested 354,796.65 

$85,134,905.27 

The  record  is  the  more  impressive  in  that  it  lacks 
salient  features.  It  is  simply  a  record  of  constant  ex- 
pansion, and  of  the  evolution  of  highly  specialized 
organization  to  meet  increasing  needs. 

J.  Roberts  Foulke,  as  we  have  seen,  had  become 
identified  with  the  Company  in  1873,  and  eight  years 
later  had  become  the  head  of  the  department  with  the 

[46] 


HENRY  H.  COLLINS 
Director,  elected  1908 


CHARLES  H.  HARDING 
Director,  elected  1912 


J.  WHITALL  NICHOLSON 
Director,  elected  1912 


PARKER  S.  WILLIAMS 
Director,  elected  1915 


FIFTY  YEARS 

title  of  Trust  Officer.  J.  Barton  Townsend,  after  six 
years'  service,  was  elected  Assistant  Trust  Officer  in 
1891,  and  in  1911  Vice  President.  In  1907,  William 
C.  Craige,  who  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  Com- 
pany twenty-two  years,  was  elected  Title  Officer,  and 
in  1913  Assistant  Trust  Officer,  positions  which  he 
has  filled  with  conspicuous  prudence  and  ability,  and 
to  which  he  brings  a  notable  legal  training. 

In  1912,  Frank  H.  Weed,  after  thirty  years'  service, 
was  elected  Manager  of  the  Mortgage  Loan  Depart- 
ment. Henry  Longstreth,  after  nineteen  years'  service, 
was  in  1892  appointed  Manager  of  the  Western  Mort- 
gage Department,  and  Barton  G.  Lester,  Special  Loan 
Agent  in  Denver.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
Trust  and  Mortgage  Loan  Departments  not  only 
handle  the  mortgage  investments  for  trust  estates,  but 
also  all  the  mortgages  for  the  Insurance  Department. 
On  First  month  1st,  1915,  the  amount  of  the  insurance 
mortgages  was  $24,557,480.68,  and  of  trust  mortgages 
$19,676,276.88.  It  is  evident  that  so  large  a  volume  of 
mortgages  could  not  be  handled  without  the  perfection 
of  system.  From  the  time  when  the  application  is 
first  submitted,  carefully  examined  by  the  Mortgage 
Loan  Department,  referred  to  the  Title  Department 
as  to  title,  referred  to  the  Finance  Committee  of  the 
Board  of  Directors,  and  inspected  personally  by  a  rep- 
resentative of  the  Company  before  final  approval,  every 
precaution  is  taken  which  fifty  years  of  experience 
have  suggested.    Equally  careful  precautions  are  taken 

[47] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

with  the  fire  insurance  protection  and  with  the  col- 
lections of  interest.  Foreclosures  have  been  rare,  and 
have  in  the  aggregate  shown  a  profit  rather  than  a  loss. 
Another  well-organized  sub-department  takes  the  nec- 
essary steps  when  trust  estates  are  first  submitted  to  the 
care  of  the  Company,  and  when  settlement  is  finally 
made,  including  the  distribution  of  the  principal  of 
the  estate.  Another  has  charge  of  distribution  of  in- 
come, another  of  the  management  of  real  estate.  Col- 
lection of  rents,  etc.,  for  estates  is  another  department. 
Corporate  trusts  have  departments  for  transfer  and  for 
payment  of  interest  and  dividends.  Other  functions, 
too  numerous  for  mention,  such  as  filing  of  wills,  are 
carefully  grouped  in  competent  hands,  and  the  book- 
keeping has  been  carefully  studied  to  insure  accuracy 
and  avoid  duplication.  The  whole  organization  is 
imbued  with  a  thoroughgoing  sense  of  the  character  of 
the  responsibility  which  is  involved  and  of  the  loyalty 
which  is  due  to  the  clients  of  the  Company. 

The  present  organization  of  the  other  departments 
of  the  Home  Office  is  a  matter  of  interest.  It  has  al- 
ready been  shown  that  the  training  of  the  President, 
Asa  S.  Wing,  gives  him  an  unusual  grasp  upon  the 
nature  of  the  problems  of  the  several  departments, 
which  enables  him  to  guide  the  general  policy  of  these 
departments  intelligently,  while  permitting  the  depart- 
ments to  work  out  matters  of  detail  for  themselves,  his 
entire  comprehension  of  the  detail  allowing  him  to  see 
the  larger  aspect  of  the  problem. 

[48] 


ROBERT  M.  JANNEY 

Director,  elected  1898 

Committee  on  Finance  and  Accounts 


FIFTY  YEARS 

Associated  with  the  President  upon  the  Committee 
on  Finance  and  Accounts  is  the  Vice  President,  T. 
Wistar  Brown,  whose  invaluable  service  to  the  Com- 
pany has  already  been  emphasized.  The  other  Di- 
rectors who  make  up  the  Committee  of  Seven  are,  in 
order  of  seniority,  Robert  M.  Janney,  John  B.  Morgan, 
Joseph  B.  Townsend,  Jr.,  Levi  L.  Rue  and  George 
Wood.  The  service  rendered  by  the  Committee  on 
Finance  and  Accounts  is  peculiarly  valuable.  Meet- 
ing regularly  every  week,  it  supervises  the  general 
investment  policy  of  the  Company,  and,  in  addition, 
examines  each  investment  with  the  most  careful 
scrutiny,  bringing  to  its  advice  a  breadth  of  view 
and  a  sagacity  which  renders  its  function  of  the  first 
importance. 

Emphasis  should  be  laid  upon  the  quarterly  exami- 
nation of  the  assets  of  the  Company  by  the  Committee 
on  Audit  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  who  in  person 
check  up  and  satisfy  themselves  of  the  physical  pres- 
ence of  each  individual  security  called  for  by  the 
statements  which  have  been  made  to  the  Board,  except 
for  the  fourth  quarter,  when  it  is  their  custom  to 
employ  a  reliable  firm  of  certified  accountants.  Even 
from  the  earliest  days,  when  the  assets  were  still  com- 
paratively small,  it  had  been  the  policy  of  the  Com- 
pany to  anticipate  in  its  methods  of  examination  a 
system  which  would  later  be  rendered  necessary  as 
the  Company  grew  in  size,  rather  than  to  allow  a 
system  which  had  answered  every  purpose  under  older 

[49] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

conditions  to  become  inadequate  before  making  a 
change. 

J.  Barton  Townsend,  in  addition  to  his  duties  in 
the  Trust  Department,  is,  as  Vice  President,  empow- 
ered to  act  for  the  President  in  his  absence,  his  legal 
training  in  the  office  of  his  father,  Joseph  B.  Town- 
send,  and  his  long  service  in  the  Provident,  having 
furnished  him  with  a  wide  experience. 

The  duties  of  the  Manager  of  the  Insurance  De- 
partment and  of  the  Trust  Officer  are  mentioned 
elsewhere. 

The  Actuary,  David  G.  Alsop,  entered  the  service 
of  the  Company  in  1881,  was  elected  Assistant  Actuary 
in  1891,  and  Actuary  in  1899.  His  experience  has  been 
unusually  broad.  A  Fellow  of  the  Actuarial  Society 
of  America,  and  held  in  affectionate  esteem  in  his 
profession,  he  has  brought  to  his  intricate  duties  in 
the  Provident  a  trained  intelligence  which  has  been 
of  the  greatest  value  not  only  to  the  Company,  but  to 
its  clients.  To  pass  upon  a  given  case,  however,  the 
Actuary  must  have  before  him  the  data  pertaining  to 
it,  and  to  obtain  these  data  promptly  a  highly  per- 
fected system  is  necessary.  No  effort  has  been  spared 
by  the  Actuary  and  his  assistants  to  perfect  the  system 
of  the  Provident.  Accuracy  is,  of  course,  the  first 
essential.  The  detail  is  so  voluminous,  however,  that 
simplification  of  method  is  necessary  to  attain  accu- 
racy. This  has  been  the  subject  of  constant  investiga- 
tion and  study,  conducted  with  an  alert  appreciation  of 

[50] 


JOHN    B.    MORGAN 

Director,  elected  1905 

Member  Committee  on  Finance  and  Accounts 


FIFTY  YEARS 

any  improvement  which  presented  itself,  and  of  the 
possibility  of  avoiding  unnecessary  duplication.  Not 
only  is  it  possible  to  answer  immediately  an  inquiry 
which  a  policyholder  may  make  concerning  his  policy, 
but,  notwithstanding  the  Company  has  over  120,000 
policies  on  its  books,  insuring  considerably  over 
$300,000,000,  it  is  possible  on  the  last  night  of  the 
year,  after  the  close  of  the  business  day,  to  complete 
the  necessary  valuation  so  that  an  accurate  statement 
of  the  reserve  liability  of  the  Company  may  be  in- 
cluded in  the  Annual  Statement  which  is  published 
in  the  Philadelphia  papers  upon  the  first  day  of  the 
year.  Without  the  most  loyal  and  efficient  co-opera- 
tion of  the  twenty-six  assistants  in  the  Actuarial  De- 
partment, operating  upon  this  carefully  devised  system, 
such  a  result  would  not  be  obtainable. 

Mention  should  be  made  also  of  the  important  and 
responsible  duties  of  the  Associate  Actuary,  M.  Albert 
Linton,  a  Fellow  of  the  Actuarial  Society  of  America, 
and  of  the  (British)  Institute  of  Actuaries,  who 
entered  the  service  of  the  Company  in  1909,  was  ap- 
pointed Mathematician  in  1913,  and  elected  to  his 
present  position  in  1915,  and  who  is  charged  with  the 
investigations  necessary  to  enable  the  Actuarial  Depart- 
ment to  test  the  formulae  employed  by  the  Company. 

The  Treasurer,  Samuel  H.  Troth,  was  elected  in 
1899,  after  fifteen  years'  service,  to  perform  the  duties 
usually  appertaining  to  that  office,  which  had,  under 
the  earlier  practice  of  the  Company,  been  performed 

[51] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

by  the  Actuary.  To  these  he  has  brought  intelligence 
and  a  keen  sense  of  the  responsibility  entailed  by  the 
office,  a  responsibility  which  with  the  rapid  growth 
of  the  Company  has  imposed  a  searching  investigation 
of  improved  methods  which  would  afford  greater 
facility  in  the  transaction  of  business  without  surrender 
of  the  security  enjoyed  under  earlier  conditions.  With 
him  is  associated  the  Assistant  Treasurer,  John  Way, 
who  was  elected  to  the  position  in  1910,  after  seventeen 
years'  service.  Mention  should  also  be  made  of  Louis 
Ashbrook,  who  entered  the  service  of  the  Company 
in  1868,  and  of  Murray  Gorgas,  who  entered  in  1872, 
and  who  occupy  the  positions  of  Paying  and  Receiv- 
ing Teller  respectively. 

The  Secretary,  C.  Walter  Borton,  was  elected  in 
1899,  after  ten  years'  service.  In  addition  to  his  duties 
as  Secretary  of  the  Board,  and  the  usual  duties  of 
Secretary  of  the  Company,  he  is  charged  with  the 
responsibility  of  keeping  a  daily  record  of  the  status 
of  each  investment  of  the  Company  other  than  mort- 
gage investments,  and  the  recording  of  the  latest  in- 
formation concerning  it,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Finance  and  Accounts,  and  the  Treasurer. 
Charged  also  with  the  duty  of  passing  upon  the 
candidates  for  employment,  he  has  greatly  interested 
himself  in  the  efficiency  problem  and  meets  with  the 
delegates  appointed  by  each  office  group. 

The  Manager  of  the  Insurance  Department,  J. 
Thomas  Moore,  who  had  entered  the  service  of  the 

[52] 


JOSEPH  B.  TOWNSEND,  JR. 

Director,  elected  1904 

Committee  on  Finance  and  Accounts 


FIFTY  YEARS 

Company  in  1886,  was  elected  in  1911  in  succession  to 
Joseph  Ashbrook.  His  duties  are  of  the  most  exten- 
sive, as  he  is  Superintendent  of  Agents,  and  therefore 
charged  with  the  production  of  the  new  business  of 
the  Company,  as  well  as  with  the  formulation  of  the 
policy  of  the  Insurance  Department  under  the  guid- 
ance of  the  President.  He  brings  to  the  performance 
of  these  duties  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  field  and 
its  requirements,  and  an  equally  thorough  knowledge 
of  what  constitutes  good  management  at  the  Home 
Office.  Thoroughly  trained  in  the  traditions  of  the 
Company,  and  loyal  to  the  fundamental  principles 
which  have  always  guided  its  practice,  he  is  particu- 
larly alert  to  the  constant  change  in  field  conditions, 
and  his  grasp  upon  essentials  enables  him  to  meet  these 
changes  intelligently  without  a  surrender  of  principle. 
Under  his  leadership  the  business  of  the  Company  has 
shown  a  gratifying  expansion. 

Associated  with  the  Manager  of  the  Insurance 
Department  is  the  Insurance  Supervisor,  J.  Smith 
Hart,  who  entered  the  service  of  the  Company  in  1884, 
and  was  elected  to  his  present  position  in  1911.  His 
responsibility  is  for  the  supervision  of  the  risks  pre- 
sented to  the  Company  for  acceptance,  for  which  his 
long  service  under  Joseph  Ashbrook  had  peculiarly 
fitted  him.  To  his  intelligent  co-operation  with  the 
Medical  Department  is  due  the  continuation  of  the 
low  mortality  of  the  Company,  an  achievement  which 
is  notable,  when  the  expansion  of  the  field  is  taken  into 

T53] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

consideration.  To  the  exceedingly  important  duties 
entrusted  to  him,  he  brings  an  unusual  faculty  of  get- 
ting at  essentials  in  passing  upon  a  risk,  and  an  ability 
to  form  a  clearly  reasoned  decision,  which  commands 
the  confidence  of  the  agency  force. 

Associated  also  in  the  Insurance  Department  are 
William  S.  Ashbrook,  Agency  Secretary,  and  Paul 
Loder  and  Franklin  C.  Morss,  Assistants  to  the  Man- 
ager. 

The  Philadelphia  Agency  which,  under  the  mag- 
netic leadership  of  Matthew  Walker,  who  has  been 
Superintendent  of  Local  Agents  since  1908,  after 
twenty-six  years'  previous  service  in  the  Company, 
comprises  sixty  agents  and  is  located  in  the  Home 
Office  Building.  (A  photograph  of  the  Agency  taken 
in  1913,  is  reproduced  opposite  page  64.)  This  Agency 
wrote  $7,750,000  of  new  business  in  1914.  Admirably 
organized,  and  not  forgetful  of  the  best  traditions  of 
the  Company,  while  alive  to  modern  conditions,  it  has 
grown  with  the  growth  of  the  institution ;  and  the  rep- 
utation of  the  Provident  in  its  home  city  today  is 
largely  due  to  the  skill,  intelligence  and  high  standing 
of  its  Philadelphia  agents,  between  whom  and  the 
agents  in  the  field  there  has  always  been  a  keen  though 
friendly  rivalry  in  maintaining  the  Provident  standard. 

The  Medical  Director  of  the  Company,  Dr.  Charles 
H.  Willits,  was  elected  to  that  position  in  1905,  after 
thirteen  years'  service,  and  has  had  associated  with  him 
Dr.  Herbert  Old,  as  Assistant  Medical  Director,  since 

[54] 


LEVI  L.  RUE 

Director,  elected  1910 

Committee  on  Finance  and  Accounts 


FIFTY  YEARS 

1914.  The  Medical  Department  is  charged  with  the 
most  important  duty  of  appointing  Local  Medical 
Examiners,  as  well  as  of  passing  upon  applications. 
The  success  of  the  Medical  Department  is  attested  by 
the  remarkably  low  mortality,  to  which  attention  has 
already  been  drawn.  To  the  ability  to  make  a  correct 
decision  in  a  case,  Dr.  Willits  adds  the  faculty  of  being 
able  to  show  the  agent  the  reasonableness  of  a  decli- 
nation, so  that  the  Medical  Department  enjoys  to  a 
remarkable  degree  the  confidence  of  the  field. 

Other  departments  are  the  Auditing  Depart- 
ment, headed  by  Lucius  M.  Allen,  as  Auditor; 
the  Agents'  Commission  Department;  the  Book- 
keepers' Department;  the  Correspondence  Depart- 
ment; the  Development  of  Trusts  and  Deposits, 
headed  by  Benjamin  F.  Jones ;  the  Policy  Loan  Depart- 
ment, William  G.  Rhoads,  Manager;  the  Premium 
Department;  the  Purchasing  Department,  headed  by 
Alfred  G.  Scattergood,  Purchasing  Agent,  and  includ- 
ing the  Printing  Shop;  the  Safe  Deposit  Department 
and  the  Tellers'  Department.  The  Insurance  Record 
Department,  which  is  mentioned  last,  is  the  largest 
of  all  the  clerical  departments.  The  Manager,  Thomas 
J.  Richards,  who  entered  the  service  of  the  Company 
in  1881,  has  under  his  supervision  no  less  than  sixty- 
five  clerks.  Here  the  applications  are  received  from 
the  Insurance  Supervisor  and  verified,  and  the  policies 
prepared  for  signature,  each  containing  a  photograph 
of  the  original  application,  and  a  record  of  each  policy 

[55] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

is  commenced,  upon  which  is  noted  from  time  to  time 
each  premium  received  and  dividend  paid,  each  change 
of  beneficiary  or  assignment,  and  each  change  of 
address.  Here,  too,  the  premium  receipts  are  pre- 
pared, as  well  as  premium  notices  in  many  instances, 
together  with  other  details  too  numerous  to  mention, 
but  each  requiring  great  accuracy,  and  so  voluminous 
in  the  aggregate  as  to  necessitate  great  nicety  of  sys- 
tem. 

Mention  should  be  made  also  of  the  Dining  Room, 
where  a  simple  but  abundant  luncheon  is  served  to  the 
officers  and  employees,  thus  minimizing  the  absence 
of  each  from  his  desk  and  not  only  preventing  delay 
in  attention  to  clients,  but  also  preventing  the  likelihood 
of  error  in  the  necessity  which  would  otherwise  exist 
for  important  matters'  being  handled  by  a  substitute 
during  the  absence  of  his  principal. 

The  relationship  between  the  officers  and  employees 
of  the  Company  has  always  been  cordial  and  agree- 
able. This  arose  in  the  first  instance  from  the  small- 
ness  of  their  number,  permitting  a  closeness  of  associa- 
tion in  the  service  of  the  Company,  which  of  itself 
engendered  a  friendly  feeling.  With  the  growth  of  the 
Company  and  the  further  specialization  of  duties,  it 
became  important  that  this  friendly  bond  should  not 
be  lost  sight  of.  In  191 1,  a  "Get  Together"  movement 
was  inaugurated,  the  success  of  which  is  rapidly  passing 
the  experimental  stage.  Its  primary  object,  as  has 
already  been  indicated,  is  to  maintain  that  traditional 

[56] 


GEORGE  WOOD 

Director,  elected  1911 

Committee  on  Finance  and  Accounts 


FIFTY  YEARS 

friendliness  of  relationship  between  fellow  employees 
and  between  officers  and  employees,  without  which 
real  efficiency  is  unobtainable.  Frequent  Educational 
Meetings  are  held  in  which  various  phases  of  the  busi- 
ness are  explained  by  those  best  qualified  to  do  so.  It 
is  an  interesting  commentary  upon  the  value  of  these 
addresses  that  one  of  them  upon  the  subject  of  "En- 
dowment Insurance"  by  M.  Albert  Linton,  then  Mathe- 
matician of  the  Company,  should  have  been  extensively 
quoted  by  Professor  Huebner  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  in  the  text-book  on  "Life  Insurance" 
which  he  prepared  at  the  request  of  the  National  Asso- 
ciation of  Life  Underwriters.  Suggestions  as  to  effi- 
ciency in  matters  of  detail  which  have  been  discussed 
by  the  delegates  from  the  various  groups  are  presented 
to  the  Cabinet  at  stated  conferences,  and  once  a  year 
the  whole  force  of  officers  and  employees  spend  the 
evening  together,  a  collation  affording  an  opportunity 
for  better  acquaintance,  followed  by  interesting  and 
appropriate  speeches. 

A  quarterly  paper,  "Between  Ourselves,"  is  issued 
by  the  Home  Office  force  "to  disseminate  information 
and  to  promote  efficiency,  loyalty  and  good-fellowship," 
with  a  correspondent  from  each  departmental  group 
forming  an  Advisory  Board  to  the  editors.  This  paper, 
while  giving  personal  news  and  office  notes,  has  con- 
tained a  large  number  of  exceedingly  instructive  articles 
upon  business  topics,  which  have  caused  it  to  be  very 
favorably  commented  upon. 

[57] 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  AGENCY  ORGANIZATION 

The  earlier  reputation  of  the  Company  as  to  its 
agency  force  has  been  well  maintained.  The  number 
of  General  Agencies  has  now  reached  forty-three,  and 
the  Company  is  licensed  to  operate  in  California,  Colo- 
rado, Connecticut,  Delaware,  District  of  Columbia, 
Georgia,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Maine,  Mary- 
land, Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Missouri, 
Nebraska,  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  New  York, 
North  Carolina,  Ohio,  Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode 
Island,  South  Dakota,  Tennessee,  Vermont,  Virginia, 
Washington  and  West  Virginia — in  all,  thirty-one  states. 
There  is  a  generous  rivalry  between  the  General 
Agencies,  not  merely  as  to  the  amount  of  business,  but 
also  as  to  its  quality  and  the  quality  of  the  men  who 
produce  it.  Men  of  character  and  ability  are  sought 
as  representatives,  who  are  carefully  instructed  in  the 
principles  of  life  insurance  and  in  the  traditions  of 
the  Provident.  Agency  meetings  for  discussion  are 
held  at  frequent  intervals  in  the  General  Agencies.  The 
meetings  of  the  General  Agents'  Association  at  the 
Home  Office  are  felt  to  be  of  such  value  through  the 
able  papers  which  are   read,  that  the  attendance  is 

[58] 


SAMUEL  DICKSON 
of  Counsel  for  the  Company.     Died  May  28,  1915 


FIFTY  YEARS 

exceedingly  large,  although  the  General  Agents  attend 
at  their  own  expense. 

The  loyalty  of  the  General  Agents  and  of  the  Local 
Agents  to  the  Company  is  proverbial,  and  this  feeling 
has  always  been  reciprocated  by  the  Management.  It 
was  no  figure  of  speech  when  the  former  Vice  Presi- 
dent, Joseph  Ashbrook,  said  at  the  Twenty-fifth  Anni- 
versary of  the  Philadelphia  Agents'  Association  that 
the  tie  which  bound  him  to  them  was  not  a  mere  busi- 
ness tie,  but  a  tie  of  real  affection,  growing  out  of  a 
peculiarly  intimate  relationship  which  had  been  ren- 
dered possible  only  by  the  high  character  of  the  men 
with  whom  he  had  been  associated. 

Nearly  twenty  years  before,  in  addressing  the  Life 
Underwriters'  Association  of  Western  Massachusetts 
at  Springfield,  Fifth  month  3rd,  1895,  he  had  said: 
"With  the  profound  respect  which  I  have  for  the  other 
departments  of  the  business,  I  am  at  least  conscious 
of  no  discourtesy  when  I  claim  that  in  view  of  what 
has  been  accomplished  by  the  agent,  and  especially 
in  view  of  the  difficulty  of  its  accomplishment,  he 
is  entitled  to  the  proudest  place  in  the  business.  It 
was  his  courage  and  faith  which  made  life  insurance 
possible.  To  him  as  an  educator  belongs  the  credit  of 
the  astounding  revolution  in  public  opinion  brought 
about  in  the  short  space  of  the  last  thirty-five  years. 
Instead  of  universal  doubt  and  distrust,  there  now  exists 
universal  faith  in  the  scientific  basis  and  the  safety  and 
permanence  of  life  insurance.     Instead  of  ignorance 

[59] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

and  coldness  and  indifference,  the  moral  obligation  to 
protect  dependents  by  life  insurance  is  now  everywhere 
admitted." 

Six  years  earlier,  the  ^Annual  Report  of  the  Com- 
pany had  contained  this  paragraph:  "The  Company 
has  done,  perhaps,  more  than  any  other  to  redeem  the 
methods  employed  to  get  business  (through  personal 
solicitation  by  agents)  from  the  odium  which  for  many 
years  attached  to  it.  Recognizing  the  occupation  as 
legitimate,  and  as  intrinsically  dignified  and  honorable, 
a  high  standard  of  qualification  for  agents  was  adopted. 
As  the  result  of  this,  men  of  character  and  intelligence 
have  sought  its  employment,  and  they  have  been  care- 
fully trained  and  instructed  for  their  particular  duties ; 
the  fruit  has  been  seen  in  the  better  service  the  Com- 
pany has  itself  secured,  and  in  the  moral  effect  upon 
the  agents  themselves." 

In  his  Annual  Report  for  1913,  President  Wing  had 
urged  that  "too  much  cannot  be  said  in  commendation 
of  the  loyalty  and  faithfulness  of  the  Agents  who  rep- 
resent this  Company.  Probably  no  life  insurance 
company  has  such  a  group  of  men.  Mostly  they  have 
chosen  to  work  for  this  Company  because,  after  care- 
ful examination,  they  have  become  convinced  of  the 
fidelity  and  skill  with  which  it  has  been  managed.  They 
give  their  whole  hearts  to  their  work.  Offers  of  larger 
commissions  from  other  companies  seldom  swerve 
them — they  believe  in  the  Provident  and  show  their 
belief  by  their  untiring  zeal  for  it. 

[60] 


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FIFTY  YEARS 

"We  believe  that  the  high  character  of  the  Agents 
representing  this  Company  is  one  of  the  largest  factors 
in  making  the  Company  what  it  is  today, — certainly  it 
has  had  much  to  do  with  producing  its  very  low  rate 
of  mortality;  all  of  our  Agents  realize  their  responsi- 
bility for  the  character  of  every  risk  which  they  sub- 
mit. They  have  the  confidence  and  regard  both  of  the 
men  whom  they  insure  and  of  the  officers  of  the  Com- 
pany." 

It  is  possible  in  these  quotations  to  see  clearly  that 
mutual  respect  and  confidence  which  has  in  an  unusual 
degree  characterized  the  relationship  between  the 
management  and  the  field  force  of  the  Provident.  To 
win  deservedly  the  confidence  of  the  agent  in  the  field, 
to  appreciate  his  function  at  its  real  importance,  and 
to  exclude  from  that  function  men  who  did  not  measure 
up  to  the  high  standard  which  it  entailed,  has  been  the 
tradition  of  the  Company. 

Interest  attaches  to  the  photograph  which  is  repro- 
duced opposite  page  60,  of  a  group  of  the  earlier  Phila- 
delphia Agents  of  the  Company.  These  were  the  men 
who  under  the  leadership  of  their  Manager  formed  the 
splendid  tradition  which  still  animates  the  field  force 
of  the  Company.  Seated  in  the  front  row  with  Samuel 
R.  Shipley,  President,  Asa  S.  Wing,  Vice  President, 
and  Joseph  Ashbrook,  Manager  of  the  Insurance  De- 
partment, are  Allen  Flitcraft,  James  M.  Price,  Richard 
Griffith  and  Nathaniel  H.  Brown,  now  all  deceased, 
who  brought  to  their  calling  an  enthusiasm  which 

[61] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

heightened  their  conception  of  its  responsibility. 
Among  those  standing  behind  are  James  W.  Janney, 
who  entered  the  service  of  the  Company  in  1876,  and 
who  for  twenty-nine  years  has  been  the  Company's 
General  Agent  in  Chicago,  bringing  to  his  profession 
qualities  which  have  won  for  him  a  unique  position 
in  the  affectionate  esteem  of  the  life  insurance  men  of 
that  city, — the  much  loved  Charles  D.  Hammer,  forty 
years  in  the  service  of  the  Company,  formerly  a  part- 
ner in  the  Chicago  Agency,  and  more  recently  General 
Agent  in  Boston,  until  ill  health  compelled  his  resig- 
nation from  the  more  active  duties  of  the  position, — 
William  D.  Yerger,  still  active  in  the  management  of 
the  General  Agency  in  Cincinnati,  whose  high  prin- 
ciple has  won  for  him  a  deserved  confidence  not  only 
at  the  Home  Office,  but  with  a  still  widening  circle  of 
clients, — William  M.  Scott,  recently  deceased  after 
thirty-seven  years'  service,  latterly  as  General  Agent 
for  Eastern  Pennsylvania,  devoted  to  the  Company, 
active  in  the  Philadelphia  Association  of  Life  Under- 
writers, and  lamented  by  Provident  Agents  everywhere 
who  valued  his  friendship  and  counsel, — Benjamin  H. 
Lightfoot,  until  his  death  General  Agent  at  Pittsburgh, 
much  esteemed  for  his  sense  of  duty  and  loyalty  to  the 
Company, — Samuel  C.  Eastburn,  General  Agent  for 
Central  Pennsylvania,  and  still  displaying  the  same 
energy  and  resourcefulness  which  marked  his  earlier 
personal  canvass  in  the  field,  where  he  secured  for  him- 
self and  for  the  Company  the  lasting  friendship  of  his 

[62] 


< 


FIFTY  YEARS 

policyholders, — Frank  LeBar,  still  active  as  General 
Agent  for  New  Jersey,  and  manifesting  in  his  present 
duties  the  same  magnetism  which  was  characteristic 
of  his  earlier  service  in  the  field, — Charles  Mason  and 
Joseph  Lippincott,  now  deceased, — Thomas  Briggs 
and  William  H.  Walker,  both  still  conspicuously  suc- 
cessful in  the  Philadelphia  Agency,  and  the  latter 
chosen  the  first  president  of  its  meetings  in  1889.  Miss- 
ing from  this  picture  are  William  Smedley,  one  of  the 
earliest  of  the  Philadelphia  Agents  of  the  Company, 
then  deceased,  and  Jonathan  K.  Taylor,  General  Agent 
in  Baltimore  after  thirty-seven  years  of  particularly 
active  and  loyal  service,  whose  mastery  of  the  business 
and  forceful  eloquence  in  its  exposition  has  won  him 
alike  success  in  the  field,  esteem  at  the  Home  Office,  and 
affection  and  admiration  from  his  brother  General 
Agents. 

Opposite  page  62  is  reproduced  a  photograph  of 
the  General  Agents  of  the  Company  assembled  at  their 
First  Annual  Meeting. 

The  scope  of  this  sketch,  unfortunately,  does  not 
permit  detailed  mention  of  all  the  General  Agents, 
whose  names  will  be  found  in  the  list  which  is  ap- 
pended ;  and  not  to  mention  all  would  seem  invidious. 
In  their  several  cities,  they  have  deserved  the  esteem 
of  their  clients  and  of  the  life  insurance  fraternity. 
Many  of  them  have  performed  notable  services  in  their 
local  life  underwriters'  associations,  and  have  not  in- 
frequently been  called  upon  to  represent  their  associa- 

[63] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

tion  as  delegates  to  the  National  Convention,  in  which 
some  have  borne  a  particularly  distinguished  part. 
They  have  brought  to  their  profession  a  dignity  and  an 
ability  which  has  been  welcomed  by  all  who  have  had 
the  best  interests  of  life  insurance  at  heart,  and  which 
is  a  happy  augury  for  the  second  half-century  of  the 
Company. 


[64] 


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CHAPTER  VI 

THE  PAST  DECADE 

There  remains  to  be  considered  the  fifth  and  latest 
decade  in  the  history  of  the  Company,  which  covers 
the  period  which  has  elapsed  since  the  upheaval  in  the 
business,  of  which  mention  has  already  been  made. 

Samuel  R.  Shipley,  the  President  of  the  Company, 
had  announced  at  the  meeting  of  the  Board  held 
Twelfth  month  4th,  1905,  his  intention  to  decline  a  re- 
election as  President  for  the  coming  year,  and  the 
Board  noted  upon  the  Minutes  an  appreciation  of  his 
services  which  has  already  been  quoted;  and  at  the 
special  meeting  called  after  his  death,  Fourth  month 
22nd,  1908,  it  was  stated  of  him: 

"A  history  of  The  Provident  Life  and  Trust  Com- 
pany of  Philadelphia  to  this  date  is  a  history  of  Samuel 
R.  Shipley's  devotion  to  the  Company  and  of  his  inter- 
est in  it. 

He  counseled  with  his  associates  on  this  Board  and 
welcomed  their  advice  and  suggestions.  He  frequently 
followed  them,  but  he  always  appreciated  that  as 
President  of  the  Company  he  was  responsible  for  its 
conduct.  He  never  sought  to  shift  that  responsibility 
upon  others. 

He  placed  at  the  heads  of  the  different  departments 
of  the  Company  men  whom  he  trusted  implicitly,  to 
whom  he  delegated  most  matters  of  detail,  but  he 

[65] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

always  controlled  the  situation  and  directed  the  affairs 
of  the  Company. 

What  the  Company  is  today  he  has  made  it.  No 
words  we  may  now  record  can  add  to  or  take  from  the 
honor  due  to  his  memory  on  this  account. 

However  praiseworthy  may  be  the  future  history  of 
the  Company,  the  present  Board  and  its  successors  for 
all  time  will  refer  back  with  interest  and  satisfaction  to 
the  man  who  laid  so  securely  the  foundation  for  The 
Provident  Life  and  Trust  Company  of  Philadelphia 
and  who  for  forty  years  so  ably  served  it  as  its  first 
President. 

The  Directors  of  this  Company  place  upon  record 
their  affectionate  regard  of  Samuel  R.  Shipley  as  a 
man  and  their  deep  sense  of  loss  in  his  death." 

On  the  retirement  of  Joseph  Ashbrook  in  1911,  it 
was  recited  in  the  resolution  passed  by  the  Board  of 
Directors : 

"Largely  through  his  efforts  and  wise  management, 
the  insurance  business  of  the  Company  has  been  devel- 
oped and  has  attained  its  present  proportions.  But  of 
vastly  more  importance  than  the  volume  of  business 
written  is  the  fact  that  throughout  those  years  when  the 
life  insurance  business  of  the  country  was  being  demor- 
alized by  the  practice  of  many  of  its  exponents,  the 
Manager  of  this  Company  persistently  persevered  in 
the  course  which  he  believed  was  right,  and  thereby 
ultimately  gained  for  the  Company  a  reputation  for 
conscientious  management  and  fair  dealing  which  is, 
we  believe,  unexcelled. 

Joseph  Ashbrook's  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
practical  business  of  life  insurance,  his  ability  to  present 

[66] 


Present  Provident  Building 


FIFTY  YEARS 

clearly  his  views  in  public  or  private  speech  before 
legislators  and  others  of  influence,  and,  above  all,  his 
sterling  character,  make  him  reputed  the  country  over 
as  one  of  the  leading  men  of  his  profession." 

At  the  same  time,  after  twenty-four  years'  service 
with  the  Company  in  various  capacities,  during  the 
latter  part  of  which  he  had  been  assistant  to  Joseph 
Ashbrook  and  Superintendent  of  Agencies,  J.  Thomas 
Moore  was  advanced  to  the  Managership,  so  that  there 
was  thus  secured  a  continuity  in  the  management  of  the 
Insurance  Department  of  the  Company.  J.  Barton 
Townsend  was  at  the  same  time  elected  Vice  President. 

The  conclusion  of  the  year  1907  had  shown  a 
marked  unsettlement  of  the  money  market.  Comment- 
ing upon  this  in  his  Annual  Report  for  1908,  President 
Wing  had  said:  "We  may,  however,  note  for  our 
guidance  in  the  future,  some  of  the  lessons  which  the 
events  of  the  last  few  months  have  set  prominently 
before  us: 

First — That  a  fair  surplus  in  a  life  insurance  com- 
pany is  not  an  accumulation  for  distribution  in  definite 
shares  to  the  policyholders,  but  a  fund  to  provide  for 
unexpected  and  extraordinary  contingencies,  and  should 
be  retained  for  this  purpose. 

Second — That  this  contingency  reserve  should  be 
large  enough  to  provide  for  any  event  at  all  likely  to 
require  it.  The  events  of  the  last  year  prove  that  the 
limitations  made  by  some  laws  upon  this  fund  are 
unsafe  and  should  not  be  allowed  to  stand. 

[67] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

Third — That  if  life  insurance  companies  place  any 
large  proportion  of  their  assets  subject  to  the  demands 
of  their  policyholders  without  notice,  they  are  ventur- 
ing closely  upon  a  banking  business,  which  long  experi- 
ence has  proved  cannot  be  safely  conducted  without 
cash  reserves  proportioned  to  the  amount  subject  to 
withdrawal  upon  demand. 

Fourth — That  sooner  or  later  unsound  financial 
schemes  and  their  promoters  will  be  revealed  in  their 
true  character,  and  that  the  only  safety  for  those 
charged  with  care  of  property  belonging  to  others  is 
absolute  faithfulness  in  the  trust  imposed  upon  them  in 
every  particular. 

Fifth — That  choice  in  the  selection  of  a  company 
for  life  insurance  or  any  other  trust  should  be  decided 
not  by  the  liberality  of  promises  made,  but  by  the  char- 
acter of  the  company  as  evidenced  by  its  past  history 
and  present  standing,  and  by  the  character  of  the  men 
who  control  its  management." 

The  Report  for  the  year  1908  contained  a  reference 
to  the  increasing  demand  for  Term  insurance  under  the 
misconception  that  it  was  the  cheapest  form.  "The 
cost  of  insurance  under  all  plans  is  relatively  the  same. 
Cheapness  depends  not  upon  the  plan  of  insurance 
selected,  but  upon  the  management  and  experience 
of  the  company  in  which  the  insurance  is  placed. 
The  premium  for  Term  insurance  is  smaller  than 
for  other  kinds,  but  that  form  is  not  therefore 
cheaper.  It  is  insurance  for  a  limited  time  only. 
The  premium  is  equalized  for  the  term  covered,  say 
five  or  ten  years,  but  at  the  end  of  that  period  it  is 

[68] 


Present  Vaults  of  Company 

Actuarial  Department  in  Gallery 


FIFTY  YEARS 

increased,  being  equalized  for  another  period,  and  so 
successively  for  each  period  during  the  continuance  of 
the  policy.  If  the  policy  is  surrendered,  it  has  no  paid- 
up  or  cash  value. 

"Long  experience  confirms  us  in  the  belief  that  the 
present  tendency  to  choose  Term  insurance  is  a  mistake. 
The  average  man  who  takes  a  Term  policy  is  not  likely 
to  derive  the  satisfaction  from  it  that  he  would  from 
an  Endowment  policy,  or  from  a  Life  policy  upon 
which  the  premiums  are  paid  in  ten,  fifteen  or  twenty 
annual  payments  as  may  be  agreed  upon." 

The  Report  for  the  year  1910  had  an  interesting 
comment  upon  Insurance  on  the  Lives  of  Women. 
"With  this  Company  there  seems  to  be  a  tendency 
toward  an  increasing  proportion  of  the  number  of 
women  insured.  At  the  end  of  the  year  1909,  the  num- 
ber of  women  holding  policies  in  this  Company  was 
4777  and  of  men  56,622,  or  one  woman  for  about  twelve 
men.  Twenty  years  earlier  the  proportion  was  about 
one  to  twenty.  With  the  care  taken  in  the  acceptance 
of  all  our  risks,  there  is  no  reason  for  discrimination 
against  women.  The  mortality  to  the  close  of  1909  has 
been  more  favorable  for  women  than  for  men.  The 
actual  deaths  of  women  have  been  57-7/10  per  cent, 
of  the  number  expected,  while  the  actual  deaths  of 
men  were  60-8/10  per  cent,  of  the  same  mortality  table." 

In  the  following  year,  the  erection  was  reported, 
upon  a  lot  which  had  been  secured  at  Nos.  18,  20  and 
22  Orianna  Street,  of  a  building  "as  nearly  fireproof  as 

[69] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

present  knowledge  can  make  it  for  storing  books,  rec- 
ords, papers,  etc.,  not  in  immediate  use,  thus  insuring 
them  against  loss  by  fire  and  removing  from  the  Central 
Office  building  much  inflammable  material,  which  has 
added  more  or  less  to  the  danger,"  which  had  been 
brought  forcibly  to  the  attention  of  the  Company  owing 
to  the  great  fire  early  in  the  previous  year  in  the  office 
of  the  Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  Home  Office  building  was  thoroughly  in- 
spected by  experts,  and  every  possible  effort  made  to 
discover  any  place  of  danger  from  fire,  such  improve- 
ments being  made  as  to  reduce  the  danger  to  the  mini- 
mum. It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Orianna  Street 
lot  was  originally  a  part  of  the  southerly  or  rear  por- 
tion of  Benjamin  Franklin's  property  fronting  on 
Market  Street,  and  probably  was  included  in  the  gar- 
den where  Franklin,  as  we  learn  from  a  visitor  during 
the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1788,  was  accustomed 
to  sit  of  a  late  afternoon  under  a  very  large  mulberry 
tree,  and  entertain  his  guests,  with  agreeable  conversa- 
tion on  "politics,  botany,  natural  history,  and  on  some 
of  his  books  and  relics,"  tea  being  served  from  a  table 
under  a  tree.     (See  illustration  opposite  page  92.) 

The  Report  for  the  year  1913  contained  an  espe- 
cially valuable  treatment  of  the  subject  of  Policy 
Loans :  "The  increase  of  more  than  one  million  dollars 
in  loans  upon  policies  of  the  Company  during  the  past 
year  presents  the  twofold  aspect  of  this  right  given  to 

[70] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

the  policyholder  in  the  contracts  now  being  issued  by 
this  Company. 

"In  times  of  business  stress  many  a  man  has  been 
greatly  relieved  to  find  a  valuable  collateral  for  borrow- 
ing money,  in  the  policy  of  insurance  which  he  took  out 
originally  as  a  protection  for  his  dependent  family  in 
case  of  his  death,  and  as  provision  for  himself  and  his 
family  if  he  should  survive  to  the  time  when  he  needed 
the  money  more  than  his  family  needed  the  protection. 

"On  the  other  hand,  there  seems  little  doubt  that  too 
many  men  turn  too  readily  to  their  insurance  policies 
to  obtain  money  for  temporary  needs  and  thus  mate- 
rially lessen,  and  in  many  cases  completely  thwart,  the 
primary  purpose  for  which  life  insurance  should  be 
taken. 

"During  the  year  just  closed,  the  Company  paid  one 
thousand  maturing  endowments,  upon  318  of  which 
loans  were  outstanding  at  the  time  of  maturity,  amount- 
ing to  the  sum  of  $603,556.  The  amount  due  from  the 
Company  on  these  policies  amounted  to  $985,984,  but 
because  of  the  loans  the  policyholders  received  in  cash 
when  the  policies  matured  but  little  more  than  one- 
third  of  this  amount. 

"Very  probably  in  many  cases  the  money  borrowed 
was  of  more  value  to  the  policyholders  when  received 
as  loans  than  it  would  have  been  at  the  maturity  of 
the  policies;  but  in  many  cases  it  was  expended  for 
temporary  needs  or  wishes,  and  the  value  of  the  insur- 
ance was  depleted  without  permanent  advantage. 

[71] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

"So  general  has  this  practice  of  borrowing  money  on 
policies  become  that  many  of  the  companies  are  con- 
sidering it  a  menace  to  the  full  benefits  of  life  insur- 
ance. 

"In  the  fervor  of  excitement  following  the  Life 
Insurance  Investigation  in  New  York  in  1905,  the  law- 
makers of  different  states  vied  with  each  other  in  plac- 
ing upon  the  statute  books  laws  relative  to  the  business, 
and  among  many  others  were  those  passed  by  several 
states  making  it  obligatory  for  life  insurance  com- 
panies to  contract  in  their  policies  to  lend  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  reserve  thereon.  It  was  only  by  most  per- 
sistent effort  that  representatives  of  this  and  some  other 
conservative  companies  induced  those  responsible  for 
such  legislation  to  introduce  a  provision  allowing  the 
companies  to  require  notice  in  advance  for  such  loans, 
should  they  deem  it  necessary  or  advisable. 

"Some  of  the  companies,  notwithstanding  this  pro- 
vision allowed  by  law,  issued  their  contracts  agreeing 
to  lend  money  on  demand  without  notice.  This  Com- 
pany has  never  issued  such  a  contract,  believing  it  most 
unwise  to  do  so. 

"Today  not  only  are  the  companies  which  issued 
such  contracts  realizing  the  danger  to  which  they  have 
subjected  themselves,  but  the  Insurance  Commissioners 
of  the  different  states  are  insisting  upon  the  passage  of 
laws  to  compel  companies  to  reserve  the  right  to  require 
notice  for  loans  or  payment  of  cash  values  on  policies. 

[72] 


wmm 

PMfcjft           B                  B  H 
f]HH^M|jji|| 

p  :                                      BBSbl  '^^Har^Bt  BK51 

FIFTY  YEARS 

"The  National  Convention  of  Insurance  Commis- 
sioners held  in  New  York  in  Twelfth  month,  1913, 
passed  the  following  resolution  on  this  subject: 

Whereas,  The  percentage  of  policy  loans  to  re- 
serves in  legal  reserve  life  insurance  companies  has, 
during  the  past  twenty-five  years,  increased  from  ap- 
proximately 3-1/3  per  cent,  to  more  than  16  per  cent., 
and  it  has  been  estimated  that  there  are  now  loans  out- 
standing approximating  $550,000,000;    and 

Whereas,  The  increase  has  been  very  marked  during 
the  past  eight  years,  and  indications  are  that  they  will 
increase  to  an  alarming  degree  during  this  year;   and 

Whereas,  There  are  now  one  hundred  and  twenty 
(120)  companies  which  are  inserting  a  demand  loan 
clause  in  their  policies,  thereby  establishing  for  them- 
selves a  national  banking  obligation  which  was  spe- 
cifically declared  unsafe  by  the  Colorado  Springs  and 
Milwaukee  Conventions  of  the  National  Convention 
of  Insurance  Commissioners;    and 

Whereas,  These  companies,  having  only  1  per 
cent,  of  cash  on  hand,  cannot  expect  to  be  able  to  carry 
out  their  contracts  during  future  panics  without  the 
danger  of  wiping  out  their  surplus  by  the  forced  con- 
version of  their  securities  upon  a  broken  market;  and 

Whereas,  Twenty  years  hence  the  existing  obliga- 
tions already  placed  upon  the  books  will  have  a  loan- 
able value  that  will  be  subject  to  call  of  approximately 
$1,500,000,000,  and  if  continued  will  ultimately  render 
liable  to  call  the  entire  reserve  of  these  companies; 
and 

Whereas,  A  bill  was  drafted  by  the  National  Con- 
vention of  Insurance  Commissioners  which  provided 

[73] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

that  no  legal  reserve  life  insurance  company  should 
issue  any  policy  in  which  the  company  did  not  reserve 
to  itself  the  right  to  defer  the  granting  of  a  policy  loan 
on  a  cash  surrender  value  for  a  period  of  sixty  days 
within  the  state  where  this  bill  was  passed ;    and 

Whereas,  This  measure  has  been  enacted  into  law 
in  substance  only  in  the  States  of  Minnesota  and  Con- 
necticut, thus  affording  merely  a  partial  remedy,  be- 
cause leaving  the  companies  at  liberty  to  continue  this 
unsafe  practice  in  forty-six  states;    and 

Whereas,  It  is  clear  that  it  is  the  imperative  duty 
of  the  National  Convention  of  Insurance  Commis- 
sioners that  some  means  be  taken  whereby  the  demand 
obligation  upon  legal  reserve  life  insurance  companies 
be  checked  at  the  earliest  possible  moment;  therefore 
be  it 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  manifest  duty  of  each  and 
every  Commissioner  of  Insurance  to  have  introduced 
in  the  Legislature  of  his  respective  state  the  measure 
previously  adopted  by  this  Convention,  with  the  amend- 
ment, however,  that  the  same  is  not  to  apply  in  case 
a  loan  is  issued  for  the  purpose  of  paying  a  premium, 
and  that  no  legal  reserve  life  insurance  company  shall 
be  licensed  or  relicensed  in  the  state  where  the  measure 
is  passed,  which  hereafter  issues  anywhere  a  policy 
which  does  not  reserve  to  the  company  the  right  to 
defer  the  granting  of  a  policy  loan  or  a  cash  surrender 
value  for  a  period  of  not  less  than  sixty  days.'  " 

The  subject  of  Term  insurance  was  also  taken  up, 
and  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  attempt  to  make  this 
temporary  form  of  insurance  serve  a  permanent  need 
was  certain  to  cause  dissatisfaction  to  the  insured,  and 

[74] 


Fireproof  Building  for  Storage  of  Records 
Erected  at  18-22  South  Orianna  Street  in  1913 


FIFTY  YEARS 

thus  destroy  that  cohesion   among  the  policyholders 
necessary  to  the  well-being  of  a  company. 

The  following  year,  in  the  Fiftieth  Annual  Report, 
it  was  noted  that 

"Early  in  1914,  definite  steps  were  taken  to  dis- 
courage it  (Term  insurance),  with  a  result  which  has 
been  most  satisfactory,  and  a  striking  evidence  of  the 
loyalty  and  efficiency  of  our  agency  force,  under  the 
able  leadership  of  J.  Thomas  Moore,  Manager  of  the 
Insurance  Department. 

"To  many  of  the  agents,  it  meant  a  readjustment  of 
methods  of  canvass,  and  a  fear  of  failure  to  insure  men 
inclined  to  choose  the  cheaper  form  of  insurance ;  but 
as  soon  as  the  agents  understood  that  it  was  the  policy 
of  the  Company  to  build  for  future  and  permanent 
benefit,  rather  than  for  a  passing  need,  they  adapted 
themselves  to  the  situation,  and  are  now  convinced  of 
the  wisdom  of  the  change  for  their  own  interest  as  well 
as  that  of  the  policyholders  and  of  the  Company  itself. 

"In  1913  over  forty  per  cent,  of  the  new  insurance 
issued  was  on  the  Term  plan.  In  1914  this  percentage 
was  reduced  to  twenty- eight."* 

This  Fiftieth  Report  also  thus  happily  summarized 
the  growth  of  the  Company: 

"Because  the  Company  this  year  enters  upon  the 
second  half-century  of  its  existence,  it  seems  fitting  that 
a  brief  reference  to  the  fact  should  be  made  in  this 
report. 

"When  Governor  Curtin  of  Pennsylvania  signed  the 
Charter  of  the  Company  on  Third  month  22nd,  1865, 

*  For  the  first  ten  months  of  1915  the  Term  percentage  had  been  reduced  to  18% . 

[75] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

the  Civil  War,  which  had  devastated  our  country  for 
four  years,  was  nearing  its  conclusion,  and  the  following 
month  saw  its  end ;  though  not  the  end  of  the  compli- 
cations in  the  political  and  business  world  resulting 
from  it.  Courage  was  necessary  to  launch  a  new  busi- 
ness enterprise  just  at  such  a  time. 

"The  group  of  comparatively  young  men  headed  by 
Samuel  R.  Shipley,  the  founder  of  the  Company,  and 
its  only  President  for  more  than  forty  years,  conceived 
the  idea  of  a  life  insurance  company  made  up  largely 
of  members  of  a  religious  society  conspicuously  sober 
and  temperate  in  their  habits  of  life,  with  the  thought 
that  insurance  to  such  a  group  might  be  furnished  more 
cheaply  because  of  a  lower  rate  of  mortality. 

"In  order  to  do  an  insurance  business  on  a  mutual 
basis,  and  provide  a  source  of  earning  for  the  capital 
stock  required  to  establish  an  insurance  company  to 
operate  in  other  states,  the  founders  united  a  trust  busi- 
ness, with  the  understanding  that  after  payments  of  the 
expenses  of  the  Company,  all  gains  from  the  insurance 
business  should  belong  to  the  policyholders,  and  earn- 
ings from  the  trust  business  to  the  stockholders. 

"These  men  builded  better  than  they  knew.  The 
combination  has  been  a  fortunate  one.  The  two 
branches  of  business  have  grown  together  from  humble 
beginnings  to  their  present  proportions.  Each  has 
been  helpful  to  the  other  in  spreading  a  knowledge 
and  influence  of  the  Company  among  a  more  varied 
clientage  than  could  have  been  reached  by  either  branch 
of  business  by  itself.  In  many  cases  a  client  has  been 
so  well  satisfied  with  the  manner  in  which  business  has 
been  transacted  in  one  branch  that  it  has  led  him  to 
transact  business  with  the  other  also. 

[76] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

"The  accounts  of  both  branches  are  so  separated  that 
there  is  no  conflict  of  interests  in  the  management  of 
the  affairs  of  the  Company. 

"The  monies  and  securities  belonging  to  the  varied 
and  rapidly  increasing  trusts  committed  to  the  care 
of  the  Company  are,  of  course,  separated  from  the 
assets  belonging  to  either  branch  of  the  Company's 
business,  and  are  carefully  earmarked  as  to  ownership. 

"The  growth  of  the  Company  during  its  first  fifty 
years  is  shown  in  ten-year  periods,  as  follows : 

INSURANCE   BUSINESS 

Amount  of  Insurance  Total  amount  paid  to 

Insurance  Outstanding  Assets  Policyholders  to  date 

1874 $17,714,531  $2,087,061.29  $1,018,858.48 

1884 41,691,769  8,149,209.74  6,118,815.79 

1894 103,671,924  26,049,118.95  21,605,998.76 

1904 167,489,576  54,464,790.68  57,181,938.78 

1914 316,615,000  82,017,681.68  128,278,586.75 

TRUST   BUSINESS 

Assets  belonging  to  Trusts  in  custody  of  the  Company 

1874 $1,148,078.58 

1884 ....17,341,372.66 

1894 42,135,225.23 

1904 59,412,548.32 

1914 85,134,905.27 

"The  greatest  success  of  the  Company,  however,  has 
not  been  in  its  large  accumulation  of  assets,  its  increas- 
ing business  from  year  to  year,  nor  its  constantly  widen- 
ing field  of  influence,  but  rather  that  throughout  its 
history,  those  responsible  for  its  management  have  cher- 
ished high  ideals  of  duty  as  guardians  of  a  sacred  trust, 
and  during  the  fifty  years  this  has  been  true  also  of  its 

[77] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

employees,  with  exceptions  that  have  been  conspicu- 
ously few  in  number.  No  employee,  from  the  highest 
officer  to  the  humblest  servitor,  is  encouraged  in  any 
feeling  of  proprietorship  in  the  holdings  of  the  Com- 
pany, but  rather  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
great  trust  confided  to  his  care. 

"The  Company  has  in  its  contracts  promised  only 
what  it  was  well  assured  it  could  perform,  and  it  has 
assiduously  sought  to  give  every  man  his  right,  whether 
promised  or  not. 

"Because  we  believed  certain  forms  of  insurance, 
now  forbidden  by  law,  were  pernicious,  we  persistently 
refused  to  issue  such  contracts,  when  our  competitors 
were  thereby  increasing  their  business  enormously,  and 
we  were  apparently  left  behind  in  the  race.  In  a  simi- 
lar manner  respecting  certain  policy  provisions,  the 
weight  of  opinion  is  now  beginning  to  confirm  the  posi- 
tion taken  by  the  Provident. 

"The  figures  furnished  in  the  reports  of  the  Com- 
pany give  ample  evidence  that,  notwithstanding  this 
watchful  conservatism  and  conscientious  care,  there  has 
been  a  normally  healthful  growth  in  the  business  of  the 
Company  from  year  to  year,  so  that  now  at  the  end  of 
its  fifty  years,  The  Provident  Life  and  Trust  Company 
of  Philadelphia  takes  rank  among  the  large  life  insur- 
ance companies,  and  the  best  trust  companies  of  the 
United  States,  with  a  reputation  for  straightforward, 
fair  dealing  probably  excelled  by  none. 

"In  entering  upon  the  second  half-century  of  the 
Company's  history,  we  solicit  the  sympathetic  co-oper- 
ation of  all  having  any  interest  in  the  Company's  wel- 
fare, in  an  earnest  endeavor  to  make  the  Company  even 
more  worthy  of  the  good  name  it  has  already  won." 

[78] 


•  V  »    % 


»  »  .  >      }  > 


1. .  »  -     "••      ',»>•*, 


u 


FIFTY  YEARS 

The  problem  which  has  occupied  the  Management 
during  this  last  decade  of  the  Provident's  history  has 
been  to  hold  fast  to  the  principles  which  distinguished 
the  Company  during  its  earlier  career,  while  frankly 
recognizing  that  the  extension  and  development  of  the 
life  insurance  business  has  been  such  that  these  earlier 
principles  must  be  applied  to  new  phases  of  the  busi- 
ness. 

Entering  the  period  with  insurance  in  force  of 
$177,778,748,  this  amount  has  been  steadily  increased 
to  $316,615,000,  while  the  insurance  fund  has  risen 
from  $58,696,148  to  $86,509,727,  and  the  trust  funds 
(which  are  kept  entirely  separate  from  the  Company's 
assets)  from  $59,412,548  to  $85,134,905. 

It  is  true  that  the  experience  of  American  companies 
has  now  attained  a  scope  which  permits  the  tentative 
dicta  of  the  earlier  days  to  be  replaced  largely  with  data 
of  scientific  accuracy.  This  is  particularly  true  of  med- 
ical selection  for  life  insurance.  But  it  is  also  true  that 
with  the  universal  acceptance  of  the  theory  of  life 
insurance,  the  agents'  opportunity  for  a  sufficient  obser- 
vation upon  which  to  base  a  well-considered  opinion 
of  the  risk  is  often  less  favorable  than  formerly,  al- 
though where  the  opportunity  is  availed  of,  the  Com- 
pany reposes  the  same  amount  of  confidence  as  formerly 
in  such  a  well-considered  opinion.  The  task  which 
falls  upon  the  Insurance  Department  and  the  Medical 
Department,  therefore,  is  to  meet  these  changed  con- 
ditions frankly  with  an  adaptation  of  method  which 

[79] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

shall  perpetuate  the  original  purpose  laid  down  for  the 
Company  by  its  founders,  namely,  to  obtain  for  persons 
living  careful  lives  the  cheaper  cost  of  insurance  result- 
ing from  their  superior  longevity.  How  well  this  has 
been  done  is  demonstrated  conclusively  by  the  mortality 
of  the  Company  during  the  decade  under  consideration. 
It  is  still  true  of  the  Provident  that  its  mortality  ratio 
has  been  since  1865  smaller  than  that  of  any  other  com- 
pany for  the  same  period.  By  amounts,  the  actual  mor- 
tality experienced  by  the  Company  during  its  fifty 
years'  history  has  been  only  65.3  per  cent,  of  what  was 
to  have  been  expected  under  the  authoritative  Ameri- 
can Table,  and  the  saving  in  mortality  is  reflected  in 
the  large  annual  dividends  which  reduce  the  cost  of 
insurance. 

In  its  agency  management,  the  Company  has  the 
most  loyal  co-operation  upon  the  part  of  its  agency 
force  in  maintaining  that  high  professional  standard 
which  has  always  characterized  its  agency  organiza- 
tion. It  has  been  very  clearly  realized  that  upon  the 
agent  who  induces  the  insurance  there  is  laid  a  respon- 
sibility which  is  closely  akin  to  the  fiduciary  responsi- 
bility imposed  upon  the  Management.  Such  a  respon- 
sibility carries  with  it  the  obligation  that  the  policy 
contract  shall  be  clearly  understood  by  the  purchaser 
and  that  the  so-called  rule  of  caveat  emptor  shall  have 
no  place  in  the  transaction.  Under  modern  conditions, 
the  insured  not  infrequently  makes  up  his  mind  in  haste. 
The  conscientious  agent  requires  an  unusual  degree  of 

[80] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

skill  and  ability  to  be  able  under  these  conditions  to  "fit 
the  policy  to  the  needs  of  the  insurer"  and,  by  making 
sure  that  the  latter  understands  the  contract,  to  bring  it 
about  that  this  contract  shall  give  continued  satisfaction. 
The  Agents  have  loyally  supported  the  Company  in  its 
avoidance  of  canvassing  devices,  which,  while  they 
might  meet  with  temporary  popularity,  would  eventu- 
ally prove  to  have  been  misleading  and  to  have  excited 
the  reprobation  of  the  insuring  public. 

The  Company  has  always  been  distinguished  for 
the  large  proportion  of  its  business  upon  the  Endow- 
ment plan.  Fifty  years'  observation  of  the  practical 
working  out  of  insurance  has  shown  conclusively  that 
the  policy  which  covers  the  most  needs  in  the  largest 
number  of  cases,  and  covers  them  to  the  greatest  satis- 
faction of  the  insured,  is  a  policy  which  protects  the 
whole  period  of  the  insured's  expected  active  career 
and  then  becomes  payable  to  him  for  its  face  value  in 
cash  (or,  if  desired,  in  instalments,  which  may  be  made 
continuous)  should  he  survive  that  period.  The  pre- 
mium for  such  a  policy  in  the  Provident  is  for  the 
younger  ages  actually  less  than  the  premium  usually 
charged  for  an  Ordinary  Life  policy,  which  is  payable 
at  death  only.  Not  only  does  this  policy  give  all  the 
protection  of  a  Life  policy,  but  should  the  insured  sur- 
vive, it  absolutely  guarantees  the  payment  of  the  policy 
upon  a  stipulated  date,  thus  entirely  eliminating  any 
question  of  estimate  as  to  when  the  policy  shall  mature. 
Such  an  endowment  is  actuarially  only  a  slight  modi- 

[81] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

fication  of  the  Life  policy,  while  the  added  conve- 
nience is  very  great. 

The  decade  has  witnessed  an  increase  of  taxation 
upon  Life  Insurance,  which  has  arisen  from  the  failure 
of  the  public  to  appreciate  that  the  taxation  of  Life 
Insurance  is  essentially  a  species  of  direct  taxation. 
When  the  insuring  public  shall  have  learned  that  a 
tax  upon  life  insurance  is  a  tax  which  increases  the  cost 
of  insurance  to  each  individual  insurer,  it  will  properly 
view  such  taxation  as  in  the  nature  of  direct  taxation, 
and  will  be  guided  accordingly. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  developments  of  life 
insurance  during  the  decade  has  been  the  rapid  assimi- 
lation on  the  part  of  the  business  world  generally  of 
the  fact  which  had  already  been  seized  upon  by  a  few 
of  the  great  creative  geniuses  in  business,  namely,  that 
life  insurance  is  not  only  a  necessity  for  the  protection 
of  the  family,  but  is  in  the  great  majority  of  cases 
equally  necessary  for  the  protection  of  business  inter- 
ests. Space  prevents  the  elaboration  of  the  point. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  there  is  every  indication  of  the 
growth  of  this  form  of  life  insurance  until  it  shall  have 
become  as  pervading  a  factor  in  business  as  is  fire 
insurance.  The  Agents  of  the  Provident  have  borne  a 
distinguished  part  in  this  development,  and  one  in  par- 
ticular, Warren  M.  Horner  of  Minneapolis,  has  ac- 
quired a  national  reputation  for  his  skillful  presenta- 
tion of  the  subject.  For  such  insurance,  the  low  cost 
and  security  of  the  Provident  has  rendered  its  policies 

[82] 


? 


Boston  Office  in  1876 

Old  State  House  Building 


FIFTY  YEARS 

peculiarly  attractive,  while  the  character  of  its  Agents 
has  won  the  confidence  of  their  business  clients. 

The  Fiftieth  Anniversary  date,  Third  month  22nd, 
1915,  was  fittingly  celebrated  by  a  meeting  in  the  New 
Century  Drawing  Room,  which  was  crowded  with  the 
Officers  and  Home  Office  force  and  Agents,  together 
with  their  wives  or  other  members  of  their  families. 
Joseph  Ashbrook  had  been  chosen  to  present  the  Anni- 
versary Tablet  which  was  to  be  placed  in  the  Main 
Office.  Asa  S.  Wing  spoke  with  feeling  of  his  early 
recollections  of  the  Provident,  and  of  the  changes  inci- 
dent to  its  growth,  and  of  his  aspiration  that  the  future 
of  the  Company  should  be  worthy  of  its  past.  Jonathan 
K.  Taylor  followed  with  reminiscences  of  the  earlier 
days  in  the  field.  In  speaking  of  these  addresses,  "Be- 
tween Ourselves,"  the  paper  published  by  the  Home 
Office  force,  said:  "It  is  difficult  to  set  down  in  black 
and  white  the  spirit  of  this  anniversary  meeting.  All 
of  the  addresses  were  of  a  high  order  which  would 
have  commanded  the  interest  and  attention  of  any 
audience,  but  this  was  a  Provident  audience,  singularly 
in  unison  with  the  speakers,  filled  with  the  same  appre- 
ciation of  the  occasion,  stirred  by  the  same  affectionate 
memories  of  those  no  longer  with  us,  and  animated  with 
the  same  high  resolve  for  the  future.  Each  felt  his 
loyalty  quickened,  his  sense  of  responsibility  deepened, 
his  pride  in  his  service  heightened ;  and  none  can  pos- 
sibly forget  this  Fiftieth  Anniversary  Celebration  of 
The  Provident  Life  and  Trust  Company  of  Philadel- 

[83] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

phia,"  and  in  an  editorial:  "It  is  only  right  and  proper 
that  we  should  seek  to  measure  the  success  which 
has  been  achieved  in  fifty  years  of  growth  and  progress. 
In  honoring  the  founders  of  the  Company  and  in  noting 
the  uprightness  and  wisdom  which  governed  them  in 
their  management,  we  should  earnestly  resolve  that  in 
the  years  to  come  the  Company  shall  continue  to  deserve 
its  present  reputation  for  security,  for  ability  and  for 
fair  dealing.  We  have  in  the  reputation  and  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  Company  a  splendid  heritage,  in  which  each 
member  of  the  Home  Office  force  and  each  representa- 
tive of  the  Company,  whether  in  Philadelphia  or  at  a 
distance,  has  a  very  real  part.  The  future  of  the  Com- 
pany depends  upon  the  spirit  in  which  each  recognizes 
this  responsibility  to  its  full  measure.  Many  men  have 
given  their  best  endeavor  to  make  the  Provident  what 
it  is  and  inspire  us  to  give  likewise  of  our  own  best 
endeavor.  The  Provident  deserves  not  only  the  best 
that  is  in  us,  but  an  effort  to  make  that  best  better  still. 
We  want  to  bring  a  useful  and  forceful  enthusiasm  to 
our  work  for  the  Company,  guiding  ourselves  by  the 
lessons  to  be  learned  from  those  who  have  preceded 
us,  and  zealous  that  our  Provident  of  the  future  shall 
deserve  the  reputation  of  their  Provident  of  the  past." 


[84] 


Appendix  I 


List  of  Directors 


fife'cled  NAME  0F  DIRECTOR 

1.  6/28/65  Samuel  R.  Shipley 

2.  6/28/65  T.  Wistar  Brown 

3.  6/28/65  Henry  Haines 

4.  6/28/65  Richard  Cadbury 

5.  6/28/65  Richard  Wood 

6.  6/28/65  Joshua  H.  Morris 

7.  6/28/65  Wm.  C.  Longstreth 

8.  6/28/65  Charles  F.  Coffin 

9.  6/28/65  Jeremiah  Hacker 

10.  11/5/66  William  Hacker 

11.  3/21/71  Francis  T.  King 

12.  3/21/71  Murray  Shipley 

13.  3/21/71  Wm.  R.  Thurston 

14.  3/21/71  Augustus  Taber 

15.  3/21/71  Henry  T.  Wood 

16.  4/10/71  John  B.  Garrett 

17.  1/13/73  Henry  Dickinson 

18.  4/6/74  Charles  Hartshorne 

19.  2/5/77  William  Gummere 

20.  1/7/78  Benjamin  V.  Marsh 

21.  1/15/78  Frederic  Collins 

22.  1/13/79  J.  Morton  Albertson 

23.  3/21/79  Israel  Morris 

24.  6/6/81  Asa  S.  Wing 

25.  11/6/82  Philip  C.  Garrett 

26.  1/11/86  Justus  C.  Strawbridge 

27.  12/6/86  James  V.  Watson 

28.  8/5/89  Wm.  Longstreth 

29.  1/7/93  Edward  H.  Ogden 

30.  6/7/97  Thomas  Scattergood 

31.  11/15/97  J.  Preston  Thomas 

32.  3/23/98  Robert  M.  Janney 


ELECTED  TO  SUCCEED 


Jeremiah  Hacker  (9) 


Augustus  Taber  (14) 
Henry  Dickinson  (17) 
Wm.  R.  Thurston  (13) 
Francis  T.  King  (11) 
Henry  T.  Wood  (15) 
John  B.  Garrett  (16) 
Charles  F.  Coffin  (8) 
Wm.  C.  Longstreth  (7) 
Benjamin  V.  Marsh  (20) 
Joshua  H.  Morris  (6) 
Murray  Shipley  (12) 
J.  Morton  Albertson  (22) 
Frederic  Collins  (21) 
Richard  Cadbury  (4) 
William  Gummere  (19) 
J.  C.  Strawbridge  (26) 


Ceased  to  be 

■a 

a  Director 

4/22/08  Died 

40 

12/22/05  Died 

38 

3/13/97  Died 

30 

1/10/10  

42 

12/23/85  Died 

26 

4/25/81  Died 

24 

2/10/79  Res'd 

23 

10/— /66  Died 

10 

3/11/98  Died 

33 

12/10/77  Res'd 

20 

11/8/86  Res'd 

27 

1/8/77  Res'd 

19 

9/9/72  Res'd 

17 

12/10/77  Res'd 

21 

1/6/79  Res'd 

22 

4/6/74  Res'd 

18 

10/30/08  Died 

41 

6/14/97  Died 

31 

10/30/82  Died 

25 

11/27/92  Died 

29 

6/17/89  Died 

28 

6/10/01  Res'd 

34 

12/9/05  Died 

37 

2/7/98  Res'd 

32 

12/21/10  Died 

43 

3/24/15  Died 

46 

12/9/03  Died 

35 

4/18/07  Died 

39 

11/20/05  Died 

36 

[85] 


FIFTY  YEARS 


Directors —  Continued 


First 
Elected 

33.  9/10/00 

34.  6/10/01 

35.  1/11/04 

36.  12/15/05 

37.  2/5/06 

38.  2/5/06 

39.  7/8/07 

40.  12/7/08 

41.  12/7/08 

42.  1/10/10 

43.  1/9/11 

44.  2/5/12 

45.  9/9/12 

46.  5/10/15 


NAME  OF  DIRECTOR 

Marriott  C.  Morris 
Frank  H.  Taylor 
Jos.  B.  Townsend,  Jr. 
John  B.  Morgan 
Fred.  H.  Strawbridge 
Joseph  Ashbrook 
John  T.  Emlen 
Morris  R.  Bockius 
Henry  H.  Collins 
Levi  L.  Rue 
George  Wood 
Charles  H.  Harding 
J.  Whitall  Nicholson 
Parker  S.  Williams 


ELECTED  TO  SUCCEED 

William  Hacker  (10) 
Israel  Morris  (23) 
Edward  H.  Ogden  (29) 
J.  Preston  Thomas  (31) 
Philip  C.  Garrett  (25) 
Henry  Haines  (3) 
Thomas  Scattergood  (30) 
Samuel  R.  Shipley  (1) 
Charles  Hartshorne  (18) 
Richard  Wood  (5) 
James  V.  Watson  (27) 
Joseph  Ashbrook   (38) 
Frank  H.  Taylor  (34) 
Wm.  Longstreth  (28) 


Ceased  to  be 
a  Director 


12/4/11  Res'd   45 


11/6/11  Res'd   44 


Officers  of  the  Company 


Entered  Service 

Held  Office 

President 

1865 

Samuel  R.  Shipley 

1865—1906 

1867 

Asa  S.  Wing 

1906— 

Vice  President 

1865  (Director)  William  C.  Longstreth 

1867—1881 

1867 

Asa  S.  Wing 

1881—1906 

1865  (Director)  T.  Wistar  Brown 

1884— 

1866 

Joseph  Ashbrook 

1906—1911 

1885 

J.  Barton  Townsend 

1911— 

Trust  Officer 

1873 

J.  Roberts  Foulke 

1881— 

Actuary 

1865 

Rowland  Parry 

1865—1882 

1867 

Asa  S.  Wing 

1882—1899 

1881 

David  G.  Alsop 

1899— 

Asst.  Actuary 

1867 

Asa  S.  Wing 

1874—1882 

1881 

David  G.  Alsop 

1891—1899 

[86] 


FIFTY  YEARS 
Officers — Continued 


Entered  Service 

Held  Office 

Treasurer 

1884 

Samuel  H.  Troth 

1899— 

Secretary 

1889 

C.  Walter  Borton 

1899— 

Mgr.  Insurance  Dept. 

1866 

Joseph  Ashbrook 

1881—1911 

1886 

J.  Thomas  Moore 

1911— 

Insurance  Advisor 

1866 

Joseph  Ashbrook 

1911— 

Asst.  Treasurer 

1893 

John  Way 

1910— 

Insurance  Supervisor 

1884 

J.  Smith  Hart 

1911— 

Chief  Med'l  Examiner 

1865 

Dr.  Thomas  Wistar 

1865—1904 

Ch.  Med.  Ex.  Emeritus 

1865 

Dr.  Thomas  Wistar 

1904—1913 

Medical  Director 

1892 

Dr.  Charles  H.  Willits 

1905— 

Asst.  Trust  Officer 

1885 

J.  Barton  Townsend 

1891— 

1885 

William  C.  Craige 

1913— 

Title  Officer 

1885 

William  C.  Craige 

1907— 

Agency  Secretary 

1896 

William  S.  Ashbrook 

1911— 

Supt.  Local  Agents 

1882 

Matthew  Walker 

1908— 

Auditor 

1880 

Lewis  P.  Geiger 

1886—1912 

1885 

Lucius  M.  Allen 

1912— 

Mgr.  Mtge.  Loan  Dept. 

1882 

Frank  H.  Weed 

1912— 

Mgr.  Policy  Loan  Dept. 

1895 

William  G.  Rhoads 

1912— 

Mathematician 

1909 

M.  Albert  Linton 

1913— 

Associate  Actuary 

1909 

M.  Albert  Linton 

1915— 

Asst.  Med.  Director 

1909 

Dr.  Herbert  Old 

1914— 

Asst.  to  Med.  Director 

1904 

Dr.  Samuel  Rhoads 

1910— 

Mgr.  Ins.  Record  Dept. 

1881 

Thomas  J.  Richards 

1910— 

Asst.  to  Mgr.  Ins.  Dept. 

1909 

Paul  Loder 

1914— 

Asst.  to  Mgr.  Ins.  Dept. 

1905 

Franklin  C.  Morss 

1914— 

[87] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

Growth  of  the  Company 

Figures  derived  from  Pennsylvania  Insurance  Reports 

(Amounts  stated  to  nearest  $1000) 


Beginning 
of  Year 


ASSETS 


LIABILITIES 


SURPLUS 

Assigned  and  Unassigned 

Including  Capital 


1865 (Company  incorporated  Third  month  22nd) 

1875 $2,587,000 $1,850,000 $737,000 

1885 9,127,000 7,173,000 1,954,000 

1895 27,049,000 23,736,000 3,313,000 

1905 55,465,000 47,181,000 8,284,000 

1915 83,018,000 76,793,000 6,225,000 


Beginning 
of  Year 


BUSINESS  IN  FORCE 
Amount 


NEW  BUSINESS 

OF  PREVIOUS  YEAR 

Amount 


1865 (Company  incorporated  Third  month  22nd)  . . . 

1875 $17,714,000 $4,452,000 

1885 41,692,000 7,611,000 

1895 103,672,000 12,917,000 

1905 163,897,000 17,427,000 

1915 316,615,000 41,963,000 


1.  Boston,  Mass. 

2.  Cincinnati,  Ohio 

3.  Cleveland,  Ohio 

4.  New  York,  N.  Y, 

5.  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

6.  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

7.  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

8.  Toledo,  Ohio 

9.  Chicago,  111. 

10.  Baltimore,  Md. 

11.  New  Jersey 

12.  Eastern  Penna. 


General  Agencies 

Merchants  Bank  Building 

30  State  Street 
312-15  Union  Trust  Building 
706-10  Garfield  Building 
414  Singer  Bldg. ,  149  Broadway 
White  Building 
Home  Office 

401  Chestnut  Street 
618-21  Oliver  Building 
328  Nicholas  Building 
1905  Harris  Building 
914  Fidelity  Building 
Home  Office 
Home  Office 


Frank  J.  Hammer 
Vernon  B.  Swett 
Yerger  &  Ellis 
Saffold  &  Evans 
William  T.  Ferris 
W.  Miller  Scott 
Matthew  Walker 

Supt.  Local  Agents 
Graham  C.  Wells 
James  W.  Crook 
James  W.  Janney 
Jonathan  K.  Taylor 
Le  Bar  and  Kennard 
Abram  Stratton 


[88] 


FIFTY  YEARS 


General  Agencies — Continued 


14.  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

15.  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

16.  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

17.  Detroit,  Mich. 

19.  Denver,  Col. 

20.  Omaha,  Neb. 

21.  Topeka,  Kans. 

22.  South-Eastern  Penna. 

23.  Franklin,  Pa. 

24.  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

25.  Worcester,  Mass. 

26.  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

27.  Wichita,  Kans. 

28.  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

29.  Hartford,  Conn. 

30.  Central  Penna. 

31.  Portland,  Maine 

32.  Portville,  N.  Y. 

33.  Seattle,  Wash. 

34.  Norfolk,  Va. 

35.  Wilmington,  Del. 

36.  Richmond,  Va. 

37.  Washington,  D.  C. 

38.  Albany,  N.  Y. 

39.  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

40.  Portland,  Oregon 

41.  Rutland,  Vt. 

42.  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

43.  Greensboro,  N.  C. 

44.  Peoria,  111. 

45.  Atlanta,  Ga. 


1147-54  McKnight  Building 
1001  Hume  Mansur  Building 
410  Boatmen's  Bank  Building 
1218-20  Ford  Building 
911-15  A.  C.  Foster  Building 
552  Bee  Building 
516  New  England  Building 
Home  Office 
Bleakley  Block 


Warren  M.  Horner 
Edwards  &  Osborn 
Michener  &  Williams 
Nathaniel  Reese 
Irving  R.  Cowles 
Thomas  R.  Hill 
Richard  W.  Deaver 
Louis  F.  Paret 
Charles  R.  Galbrath 


g-}vail&Eldredge 


316  Merchants  National  Bldg 

420-22  Slater  Building 

301-2  Ashton  Building 

907  Schweiter  Building 

Bryant  Building 

First  National  Bank  Building 

Home  Office 

702  Fidelity  Building 

City  Building 

American  Bank  Building 

323-29  Dickson  Building 

926  Market  Street 

707-9  Va.  Ry.  &  Power  Bldg 

613  Bond  Building 

Albany  County  Bank  Bldg. 

320-22  University  Block 

513-14  Corbett  Building 

Wright  &  Young  Building 

164  Montague  Street 

Dixie  Building 

220  Jefferson  Building 

Connally  Building 


O.  W.  Gaines 
A.  H.  Bennett 
J.R.Engle,  Dist.Mgr. 
Ellis  &  Segur 
Charles  E.  Stockder 
Samuel  C.  Eastburn 
Freeman  M.  Grant 
Olin  A.  Devore 
Abraham  L.  Hanbey 
McLean  &  Egerton 
Frank  Sheppard 
John  Moyler 
Albert  Stabler 
Landon  &  Coffin 
Guilford  Tobey 
Dallas  J.  Sidwell 
Henry  C.  Farrar 
John  S.  Tunmore 
Paul  W.  Schenck 
George  L.  Humphrey 
Wallace  W.  Daniel 


[89] 


Appendix  II 

In  the  columns  of  the  Sunday  Dispatch,  during  the  year  1858, 
there  appeared  a  series  of  articles  from  the  pen  of  Caspar  Souder,  Jr., 
which  record  in  considerable  detail  the  successive  occupancy  of  each 
property  along  Chestnut  Street  from  the  Delaware  to  Broad  Street. 
These  articles  are  preserved  in  an  extra-illustrated  scrap-book  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Historical  Society,  and  are  a  mine  of  curious  infor- 
mation. Thanks  to  the  courtesy  of  the  Historical  Society,  it  has 
been  possible  to  make  an  abridgment  of  the  articles  dealing  with  the 
properties  now  occupied  by  The  Provident  Life  and  Trust  Com- 
pany, as  likely  to  prove  of  interest  to  the  friends  of  the  Company. 

"The  northwest  corner  of  Fourth  and  Chestnut  Streets,  which 
is  now  graced  by  a  lofty  iron  structure,  built  in  intensely  modern 
style*  (see  illustration  opposite  page  66) ,  is  the  spot  where  many  years 
ago  Plunkett  Fleeson,  Esq.,  upholder  (i.  e.  upholsterer),  magistrate, 
patriot  and  trainband  captain,  etc.,  lived  and  did  business."  His 
father  was  an  early  immigrant  from  Ireland,  possessed  of  consider- 
able means,  who  gave  his  son,  born  in  the  city  in  1712,  a  good 
education.  In  1749  this  son  was  an  Ensign  of  the  Second  Com- 
pany of  Associators,  and  in  1752  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Hibernia  Engine  Company.  In  1765  he  was  a  signer  of  a  remon- 
strance against  the  taxation  of  the  colonies.  Though  retired  from 
business,  he  was  an  active  patriot  throughout  the  Revolution,  and 
in  1780  was  commissioned  President  Judge  of  the  City  Court,  which 
sat  in  the  old  Court  House  in  Market  Street  at  the  intersection  of 
Second.  During  his  business  activity,  he  was  a  consistent  adver- 
tiser of  his  upholstery  business  "at  the  Sign  of  the  Easy  Chair," 
offering  "maple  chairs  as  cheap  as  from  Boston"  and  "ready  money 
for  Horse  hair  and  Cow  tails,"  and  in  1769  "American  Paper 
Hangings,  manufactured  in  Philadelphia  of  all  kinds  and  colours,  and 

*Built  in  1853  and  sometimes  called  the  "  Chrystal  Building." 

[90] 


c  s 

o  3 

o  a 


II 


PL,    C 


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si 

P  o 


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1-1  ■£  'a. 

■s  s.*- 

5  3.S 
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fc  ° 

m-   bJD 

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&  -a 
^  "> 
ti  o 

09 


uh 


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CPL, 


H  5 


FIFTY  YEARS 

not  inferior  to  those  imported,"  explaining  that  "there  is  consider- 
able duty  imposed  on  paper  hangings  imported  here,  and  it  cannot 
be  doubted  but  that  every  one  among  us  who  wishes  prosperity  to 
America  will  give  a  preference  to  our  own  manufactures."  In  1775 
the  advertisement  is  of  "drums,  colours  and  other  military  instru- 
ments of  the  most  approved  kinds,  and  will  endeavour  to  execute 
distant  orders  with  the  utmost  despatch."  He  was  a  contributor  to 
and  a  director  of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  and  died  in  1791.  His 
son,  Thomas  Fleeson,  for  many  years  blind,  was  a  Baptist  minister, 
living  in  Roxborough,  whose  daughter  married  William  Fry  and  was 
the  mother  of  J.  R.  and  H.  B.  Fry,  as  well  as  of  William  H.  Fry, 
one  of  the  editors  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  and  the  composer 
of  the  opera  "Leonora."  Probably  about  1800  "a  three-storied 
brick  store  and  dwelling  was  erected  at  the  corner,  on  the  site  of 
Fleeson's  old  house.  This  building  was  remarkable  for  an  extra- 
ordinary steepness  in  the  lower  pitch  of  the  hip-roof.  Above  this 
steep  portion  of  the  roof  was  a  comparative  level  surrounded  by 
posts  and  rails  peculiar  to  'flats,'  used  for  drying  clothes.  The 
plate  which  represents  the  Butchers'  Procession,  in  1821  (see 
illustration  opposite  page  90),  gives  not  only  a  correct  portrait  of 
this  house,  but  also  of  the  picturesque  medley  of  respectable  three- 
storied  brick  and  small  frame  shanties  which  then  formed  the  north 
side  of  Chestnut  Street  between  Fourth  and  Fifth  Streets." 

After  the  death  of  Plunkett  Fleeson  in  1791,  the  property  was 
tenanted  as  follows : 

1794     Rev.  Thomas  Fleeson,  Baptist  minister 

1798     Thomas  Kingston,  fruiterer 

1801     Morris  &  Whelan,  grocers 

1810  James  Cook,  paperhanger 

1811  to  1839     William  Whelan,  grocer 
1848     Lindsay  &  Blakiston,  booksellers 

1854     F.  H.  Smith,  manufacturer  of  pocketbooks,  etc. 
1859     E.  W.  Williams,  fancy  goods 

S.  Frank,  umbrella  manufacturer  (upstairs) 

[91] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

"The  building  immediately  west  of  the  corner  was  originally  a 
one-storied  frame,  painted  white,  and  presented  much  the  appear- 
ance of  a  respectable  lime  box.  The  old  frame  was  afterwards 
demolished  and  a  three-storied  brick  was  erected  on  its  site.  This 
building  in  turn  gave  way  to  the  four-storied  brick  store  which  now 
(1858)  occupies  the  spot.  The  occupants  of  the  property,  whom 
we  can  trace,  have  been  as  follows : 

1791  Susannah  Boon,  spinster 

1794  Elizabeth  Boon,  seamstress 

1798  Samuel  Rickey,  broker 

1801  James  Riddle,  bookbinder 

1806  J.  Carter,  painter 

1809  John  Black,  plasterer 

1813  Michael  Keppelle,  alderman  (his  office)* 

1816  Harrison  Hall,  editor  and  publisher  of  the  Port-Folio 

1832  Harrison  Hall,  bookseller 

Fuller  &  Barstow,  lottery  brokers 

David  P.  Jones,  hatter 

1840  Coffin  &  Clifton,  hosiery,  etc. 

1843  A.  W.  Bolenius,  importer 

1859  R.  Hey  wood,  gentlemen's  furnishing  goods 

"  The  next  property  is  now  formed  of  two  very  narrow  three- 
storied  brick  structures,  which  are  numbered  405  and  407.  The 
original  buildings  upon  the  site  were  mean  affairs  which  gave 
way  in  the  progress  of  improvements  for  a  neat  three-storied  store 
and  dwelling,  which,  still  standing  (1858),  has  been  converted  into 
two  narrow  stores,  of  which  the  easternmost  has  had  the  following 
occupants : 

1791     Thomas  Bradley,  coppersmith 

1794     Dr.  Le  Breton 

1801     Robert  Brobston,  tailor 

*"  Here  was  decided  the  famous  case  of  the  slaves  of  Langdon  Cheves,  Esq., 
whom  the  abolitionists  attempted  to  carry  off  from  his  service." 

[92] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

1804  Richard  Harding,  dwelling 
Zalegman  Phillips,  attorney 

1805  Stephen  Clayton,  boot  and  shoe  maker 

1806  Joseph  Reed,  attorney-at-law 

1816  Miss  F.  Papegay,  artificial  flower  maker 

1834  Louis  Brechemin,  jeweler 

1835  Charles  M artel,  hairdresser 
1854  J.  F.  Fouladoux,  hairdresser 

"Upon  the  site  of  the  buildings  just  described  there  were  the 
following  tenants  in  addition  to  those  named  above : 

1791     William  Anderson,  weaver 

Daniel  Gosner,  tailor 
1794     Daniel  Gosner,  coachmaker 
1798     Cary  Anderson,  widow 
1801     John  Rea,  upholsterer 

Widow  Gosner,  shopkeeper 
1809     John  Dyke,  hairdresser 

Mrs.  Crossman,  grocer 
1816     Chevalier  &  Tanguay,  jewelers 

"The  western  half,  now  numbered  407,  has  had  the  following 
tenants : 

1827  T.  T.  Osh,  bookseller 

1837  S.  M.  Stewart,  stationer 

1843  Hymen  M.  Lipman,  stationer 

1859  Joseph  Hufty,  stationer  and  engraver 

"Joseph  Reed,  attorney-at-law,  at  one  time  had  his  office  upon 
this  spot.  Mr.  Reed,  who  married  a  sister  of  the  late  John  Ser- 
geant, was  Recorder  of  the  City  from  1810  to  1829.  He  was  the 
son  of  General  Joseph  Reed  of  Revolutionary  fame,  and  the  father 
of  the  late  Professor  Henry  Reed  and  of  William  B.  Reed,  late 
District  Attorney  and  present  (1858)  Minister  from  the  United 
States  to  China." 

[93] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

"We  come  now  to  a  lofty  and  wide  four-storied  building  num- 
bered 409.  The  building  which  stood  upon  this  site  many  years  ago 
was  an  old-fashioned  three-storied  brick,  which  receded  some  dis- 
tance from  the  line  of  the  street.  The  lower  story  was  afterwards 
built  out  to  the  line  of  the  adjoining  buildings  and  handsomely 
fitted  up  for  a  store.  The  property  has  had  the  following  tenants 
whom  we  can  trace : 

1791     Benjamin  Peters,  bootmaker 

1801     Thomas  S.  Anners,  perfumer 

1843     Martin  Rice 

1846     H.  F.  Anners,  bookseller 

1848     Zieber  &  Co.,  books  and  periodicals 

1852     McMakin's  Model  Courier* 

J.  Smith  Harris,  tailor 
1859     R.  H.  DeCou,  tailor 
J.  Spissall,  engineer 
T.  G.  Andrew,  engineer 
Benton  &  Brother,  gold  pen  manufacturers 
Morris  H.  Traubel,  lithographer." 

Mention  is  also  made  of  the  fact  that  at  No.  405  there  resided 
in  1820  the  Rev.  Abner  Kneeland,  originally  a  Baptist  preacher, 
who  had  become  in  1803  a  convert  to  Universalism.  Later,  leaving 
the  ministry,  he  became  a  zealous  champion  of  infidelity  at  Salem, 
Mass.,  but  in  1818  returned  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  served  as 
pastor  of  the  Lombard  Street  Universalist  Meeting  House  until 
1825,  when  he  once  again  relapsed  into  infidelity,  forming  a  Society 
at  the  old  Federal  Street  Theatre  in  Boston  and  publishing  a  paper 
called  the  Investigator.  Indicted  by  the  Suffolk  County  Grand 
Jury  for  blasphemy,  he  was  tried,  convicted  and  imprisoned.  After 
his  release,  he  left  Boston  with  a  few  of  his  followers  in  1839  to 
found  the  settlement  of  Salubria  on  the  Des  Moines  River  in  Iowa, 

*  Originally  the  Saturday  Courier y  of  a  large  circulation  and  profitable. 
A  lawsuit  as  to  partnership  rights  turned  out  disastrously,  and  the  paper  became 
merged  with  the  Weekly  Bulletin,  published  by  Cummings  &  Peacock,  the 
forerunner  of  the  present  Evening  Bulletin. 

[94] 


"THE  YOUNG  FRANKLIN" 

The  statue  is  the  work  of  Professor  R.  Tait  McKenzie 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  the  pedestal  having 
been  designed  by  Professor  Paul  P.  Cret  of  the  Archi- 
tectural School,  and  has  been  placed  by  the  Class  of 
1904  in  front  of  the  Gymnasium  as  a  memorial  of  the 
Class.  It  represents  the  Founder  of  the  University  as 
he  came  to  Philadelphia  at  the  age  of  seventeen  seeking 
employment. 


FIFTY  YEARS 

where  he  died.  He  is  represented  as  having  been  a  man  of  ex- 
cellent moral  character,  although  exceedingly  erratic.  He  published 
in  1822  his  own  translation  of  the  Greek  Testament,  and  lost  all 
his  savings  in  a  scheme  to  recover  the  treasure  of  Captain  Kidd. 

' 'The  three-storied  structure  which  occupied  this  site  (411)  is 
the  same  (with  some  alteration,  to  keep  pace  with  the  times)  as 
was  built  and  occupied  by  Harvey  Lewis,  a  silversmith  of  bygone 
times.     We  have  the  following-named  tenants : 

1791     Ann  Gibson 

1798     John  Read,  merchant 

1801     Matthew  McConnell,  broker 

1809     W.  S.  Biddle,  attorney 

Mary  Curry,  boarding  house 

1814     Edward  Earle,  bookseller 

Rachel  Martin,  boarding  house 

1819  Harvey  Lewis,  silversmith 

1820  Widow  Kempton,  boarding  house 
1833     Edward  Lownes,  silversmith 
1843     Margaret  Christie,  upholsterer 

George  W.  Watson,  dwelling 
1859     Fame  Fire  Insurance  Company 
William  D.  Kelley,  attorney* 
J.  H.  Randall,  attorney 
George  H.  Coffey,  attorney 
C.  S.  West,  attorney 
H.  M.  Sturdivant,  engraver 
Washington  Granville,  watchmaker." 

*  William  D.  Kelley  was  the  able  and  justly  celebrated  protectionist  leader 
on  the  floor  of  the  National  House  of  Representatives  in  later  years,  to  whom  was 
given  the  affectionate  soubriquet  of  "Pig  Iron  Kelley."  A  native  of  Southwark, 
and  apprenticed  first  to  a  printer  and  later  to  a  jeweler,  he  was  of  studious  habits 
and  read  law  in  the  office  of  Col.  James  Page.  He  entered  politics  and  also 
became  a  noted  temperance  orator.  Raised  to  the  Common  Pleas  bench,  his 
decision  of  the  once  famous  contested  election  case  of  Reed  vs.  Kneass  led  to 
partisan  resentment  which,  however,  reacted  in  his  favor  and  he  was  re-elected. 
In  1855,  upon  the  formation  of  the  Republican  Party,  he  became  a  warm  sup- 
porter of  its  principles  and,  resigning  from  the  Bench,  was  a  candidate  for  Con- 
gress, but  was  defeated. 

[95] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

Immediately  to  the  west  of  the  Provident  Building  at  No. 
409  Chestnut  Street  stood  the  then-famous  United  States  Hotel, 
where  Charles  Dickens  stayed.  Reaching  Philadelphia  late  at 
night,  Dickens  said:  "Looking  out  of  my  chamber  window, 
before  going  to  bed,  I  saw,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  way, 
a  handsome  building  of  white  marble  which  had  a  mournful, 
ghost-like  aspect  dreary  to  behold.  I  attributed  this  to  the  sombre 
influence  of  the  night,  and  on  rising  in  the  morning  looked  out 
again,  expecting  to  see  its  steps  and  portico  thronged  with  groups 
of  people  passing  in  and  out.  The  door  was  still  tight-shut,  how- 
ever ;  the  same  cold,  cheerless  air  prevailed,  and  the  building  looked 
as  if  the  marble  statue  of  Don  Guzman  could  alone  have  any 
business  to  transact  within  its  gloomy  walls.  I  hastened  to  inquire 
its  name  and  purpose,  and  then  my  surprise  vanished.  It  was  the 
Tomb  of  many  fortunes,  the  Great  Catacomb  of  investment — the 
memorable  United  States  Bank.  The  stopping  of  this  bank,  with 
all  its  minor  consequences,  had  cast  (as  I  was  told  on  every  side) 
a  gloom  on  Philadelphia,  under  the  depressing  effect  of  which  it  yet 
labored.     It  certainly  did  seem  rather  dull  and  out  of  spirits." 

To  counteract  this  gloom,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  it  was 
on  a  property  now  occupied  by  the  Provident  Building,  at  No.  52 
South  Fourth  Street,  that  John  B.  Stetson  had  the  workshop  which 
has  now  expanded  into  the  enormous  and  successful  plant  of  the 
John  B.  Stetson  Company  at  Fifth  and  Montgomery  Avenue,  which 
is  known  the  world  over. 

The  antiquarian  will  find  in  Watson's  Annals  a  curious  account 
of  the  Duck  Pond  at  Fourth  and  High  (Market)  Streets,  which 
was  famous  for  its  shooting  in  the  early  eighteenth  century  and 
formed  the  proper  head  of  Dock  Creek. 

Chestnut  Street  crossed  this  stream  by  a  bridge,  near  Hudson's 
Alley,  the  present  Orianna  Street,  which  was  rebuilt  of  brick  and 
stone  as  early  as  1699,  but  which  needed  frequent  repairs,  as  the 
presentments  of  eighteenth  century  Grand  Juries  prove.  In  digging 
the  foundations  for  the  present  Provident  Building,  great  difficulty 

[96] 


FIFTY  YEARS 

was  had  with  quicksand  which  marked  the  course  of  one  of  the 
branches  of  this  stream. 

When  Franklin  first  came  to  the  city  as  a  lad  of  seventeen,  in 
1723,  he  relates  that  he  walked  up  High  (Market)  Street  as  far  as 
Fourth  and  then  down  Fourth  to  Chestnut.  It  is  interesting  to 
think  of  the  young  Franklin,  with  his  scanty  baggage,  and  his  loaf 
of  bread  under  his  arm,  passing  the  site  of  the  Provident  Building. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  Fourth  Street  formerly  stood  the 
famous  Indian  Queen  Inn,  where  Jefferson  stayed  for  some  time 
as  a  Delegate  to  the  Continental  Congress,  which  led  to  a  per- 
sistent legend  that  it  was  here  that  he  wrote  the  first  draft  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  notwithstanding  it  was  authoritatively 
proved  that  the  great  document  was  written  in  a  dwelling  at 
Seventh  and  Market  Streets.  But  another  legend,  which  seems 
inherently  probable,  relates  that  Washington,  after  having  assisted  at 
the  inauguration  of  John  Adams,  marked  his  return  to  private  life 
by  walking  down  Chestnut  Street,  with  several  of  his  friends,  from 
Congress  Hall  and  up  Fourth  Street  to  the  Indian  Queen,  where 
he  was  to  spend  the  night,  thus  passing  the  site  of  the  Provident 
Building.  The  weather-vane  on  the  ample  stables  of  the  inn  had 
shot-holes  in  it  made  by  the  "  Paxtang  boys"  in  1755,  who  had 
been  lodged  there  after  they  had  been  dissuaded  from  further 
revenge  upon  the  Indians. 

Across  Chestnut  Street  stood  the  Cross  Keys  Inn,  a  quaint  old 
double  hipped  roof  house,  which  was  torn  down  in  1803  to  make 
way  for  the  Philadelphia  Bank  Building.  To  the  west  of  this,  on 
the  site  of  the  United  States  Bank,  stood  the  Norris  mansion,  which 
was  occupied  by  several  British  officers  during  the  winter  of  1777 
and  1778,  and  where  Admiral  Howe  was  a  frequent  visitor. 

On  the  east  side  of  Fourth  Street  below  Chestnut,  and  conse- 
quently upon  the  site  of  the  building  where  the  Provident  had  its 
office  from  1866  to  1873,  stood  the  Friends'  Meeting  House  erected 
in  1763,  and  the  Friends'  Public  School  which  had  been  built  some 
years  earlier,  the  latter  since  removed  to  Twelfth  Street  and  known 
as  the  *  'William  Penn  Charter  School." 

[97] 


Index 


Actuarial  Department,  50. 
Actuary,  early  duties  of,  18. 
Agency  Department,  28,  30,  58. 
Agency  Department,  formation  of,  16. 
Agents,  16,  30,  37,  60,  61,  80. 
Agents'  Commission  Department,  55. 
Agents'   Meeting  in  Philadelphia,   in 

1883,  opp.  60. 
Albertson,  J.  Morton,  opp.  38,  85. 
Allen,  Lucius  M.,  55,  87. 
Alsop,  David  G.,  33,  50,  86. 
Annual  Report,  21,  22,  23,  24,  26,  37, 

38,  39,  40,  41,  43,  44,  60,  67,  68,  69, 

70,  75. 
Annual  Statement,  preparation  of,  51. 
Armstrong  Committee,  42,  43. 
Ashbrook,  Joseph,  15,  opp.  16,  23,  31, 

53,  59,  61,  66,  83,  86,  87. 
Ashbrook,  Louis,  52. 
Ashbrook,  Wm.  S.,  54,  87. 
Auditing  Department,  55. 

Baily,  Samuel  L.,  23. 
"Between  Ourselves,"  57,  83. 
Bockius,  Morris  R.,  opp.  44,  86. 
Bookkeepers'  Department,  55. 
Borton,  C.  Walter,  33,  52,  87. 
Boston  Office  in  1876,  opp.  82. 
Briggs,  Thomas,  63. 
Brown,  Nathaniel  H.,  61. 
Brown,  T.  Wistar,  11,  13,  20,  32,  49, 

85,  86. 
Business  insurance,  82. 

Cadbury,  Richard,  13,  20,  opp.  32,  85. 
Capital  increased  to  $500,000,  17,  23. 


Capital  Stock  increased  to  $1,000,000, 

32. 
Carter,  John  E.,  11. 
Central  National  Bank,  21. 
Coffin,  Charles  F.,  13,  opp.  34,  85. 
Collins,  Frederic,  opp.  38,  85. 
Collins,  Henry  H.,  opp.  46,  86. 
Committee  on  Audit,  25,  49. 
Committee  on  Finance  and  Accounts, 

47,  49. 
Correspondence  Department,  55. 
Craige,  Wm.  C,  47,  87. 
Curtin,  Governor,  75. 

Deferred  dividends,  estimates  of,  35. 
Deferred  dividends,  struggle  against,  34. 
Development  of  Trusts  and  Deposits,  55. 
Dickinson,  Henry,  85. 
Dickson,  Samuel,  32,  opp.  58. 
Dining  Room,  56. 
Directors,  first  Board,  13. 
Directors,  increase  of  Board  to  fifteen 

members,  23. 
Dividend,  computation  of  first,  22. 
Dividend    to  policyholders,    resolution 

to  pay  first,  21. 
Dividends  to  policyholders,  resolution 

of  Board  as  to  "profits,"  20. 

Eastburn,  Samuel  C,  62. 
Educational  Meetings,  57. 
Emlen,  John  T.,  opp.  44,  86. 
Endowment  insurance,  81. 
Evans,  Thomas,  11,  opp.  12. 
Expansion  of  life  insurance  prior  to  in- 
surance panic,  26. 


[98] 


FIFTY  YEARS 


Fidelity  Insurance  and  Safe  Deposit 
Company,  21. 

Fiftieth  Anniversary,  83. 

Finance  Committee,  first,  20. 

Fireproof  building  for  storage  of  records, 
opp.  74. 

First  Meeting  of  General  Agents'  As- 
sociation, 1912,  opp.  62. 

Flitcraft,  Allen,  61. 

Formation  of  Company,  11. 

Foulke,  J.  Roberts,  31,  46,  86. 

Fourth  Office,  Company's  Building, 
opp.  30. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  70. 

"Franklin  at  Home,"  opp.  92. 

Friends'  Provident  Institution,  11. 

Furness  and  Evans,  31. 

Garrett,  John  B.,  opp.  36,  85. 
Garrett,  Philip  C,  opp.  36,  85,  86. 
Geiger,  Lewis  P.,  32,  87. 
General  Agents'  Association,  58. 
"Get-Together"  Movement,  56. 
Gorgas,  Murray,  52. 
Griffith,  Richard,  61. 
Growth  of  Provident,  31,  37,  77,  79. 
Gummere,  William,  opp.  38,  85. 

Hacker,  Jeremiah,  13,  21,  opp.  34,  85. 
Hacker,  William,  opp.  34,  85,  86. 
Haines,   Henry,   13,  20,  opp.  32,   85, 

86. 
Halstead,  Walter  K.,  23. 
Hammer,  Charles  D.,  62. 
Harding,  Charles  H.,  opp.  46,  86. 
Hart,  J.  Smith,  53,  87. 
Hartshorne,  Charles,  opp.  36,  85,  86. 
Hoag,  Gilbert  C,  23. 
Holway,  David  N.,  23. 
Horner,  Warren  M.,  82. 
Hutton,  Addison,  17. 


Incorporation,  12. 
Insurance  Committee,  first,  20. 
Insurance  Department,  33,  53,  79. 
Insurance    panic,    comment    upon,    in 

Annual  Report,  27. 
Insurance    panic,    effect    of    abnormal 

lapse  rate  on  deferred  dividend  esti- 
mates, 35. 
Insurance  panic,  recovery  from,  28. 
Insurance  Record  Department,  55. 
Interior   409  Chestnut  Street,    looking 

north,  about  1880,  opp.  78. 
Interior  409    Chestnut  Street,  looking 

south,  about  1880,  opp.  80. 
Interior   409  Chestnut  Street,    looking 

south,  present  appearance,  opp.  70. 
Investigation  of  life  insurance  in  New 

York,  42. 

Janney,  James  W.,  62. 

Janney,  Robert  M.,  opp.  48,  49,  85. 

Jones,  Benjamin  F.,  55. 

Kimber,  Anthony  W.,  11,  22. 
Kimber,  Caleb  W.,  20. 
King,  Francis  T.,  opp.  34,  85. 

Le  Bar,  Frank,  63. 
Legislation  in  New  York,  42. 
Lester,  Barton  G.,  47. 
Life  Insurance  Investigation,  42. 
Life  insurance  panic,  26. 
Lightfoot,  Benjamin  H.,  62. 
Limit  raised  to  $15,000,  22. 
Linton,  M.  Albert,  51,  57,  87. 
Lippincott,  Joseph,  63. 
Loder,  Paul,  54,  87. 
Longstreth,  Henry,  47. 
Longstreth,  William,  opp.  42,  85,  86. 
Longstreth,  Wm.  C,  13,  opp.  14,  16, 
20,  22,  85,  86. 


[99] 


FIFTY  YEARS 


Marsh,  Benjamin  V.,  opp.  38,  85. 
Mason,  Charles,  63. 
Massachusetts,  entry  into,  17. 
Medical  Department,  55,  79. 
Meeting  House  and  School  in  Fourth 

Street,  opp.  96. 
Moore,  J.  Thomas,  52,  67,  75,  87. 
Morgan,  John  B.,  49,  opp.  50. 
Morris,  Israel,  opp.  40,  86. 
Morris,  Joshua  H.,  13,  20,  opp.  32,  85. 
Morris,  Marriott  C,  opp.  44,  86. 
Morss,  Franklin  C,  54,  87. 
Mortality,  80. 
"Mortality  Experience,  1866  to  1877," 

28. 
Mortgage  Loan  Department,  47. 
Murray,  Robert  Lindley,  23. 

National  Convention  on  Policy  Loans, 
73. 

New  York,  entry  into,  17. 

New  York  Investigation,  42. 

Nicholson,  J.  Whitall,  opp.  46,  86. 

North  American  Transit  Insurance 
Company,  20. 

North  side  of  Chestnut  Street  west  of 
Fourth  in  1851,  opp.  90. 

Northwest  corner  of  Fourth  and  Chest- 
nut Streets  in  1821,  opp.  88. 

Northwest  corner  of  Fourth  and  Chest- 
nut Streets  prior  to  the  erection  of 
Provident  Building  in  1890,  opp.  76. 

Office  Building  at  Fourth  and  Chest- 
nut Streets,  33. 

Office,  first,  247  South  Third  Street,  14. 

Office,  second,  111  South  Fourth  Street, 
14,  20. 

Office,  third,  108  South  Fourth  Street, 
17. 


Office,  fourth,  409  Chestnut  Street,  31. 
Office  for  Organization,  opp.  24. 
Ogden,  Edward  H.,  opp.  42,  85,  86. 
Old,  Dr.  Herbert,  54,  87. 
Orianna  Street  Building,  69. 

Panic,  the  Jay  Cooke,  24. 

Parry,  Rowland,  14,  opp.  18,  86. 

Philadelphia  Agency,  54. 

Philadelphia  Agency  in  1913,  opp. 
64. 

Philadelphia  Agents,  61. 

Policy  Loan  Department,  55. 

Policy  Loans,  70. 

Premium  Department,  55. 

Premium  Note  Plan,  abandonment  of, 
21. 

Present  Directors'  Room,  opp.  72. 

Present  Provident  Building,  opp.  66. 

Present  Vaults  of  Company,  opp.  68. 

Price,  James  M.,  61. 

Provident  opposed  to  deferred  divi- 
dends, 36. 

Public  opinion,  laxity  of,  36,  42,  45. 

Purchasing  Department,  55. 

Rebating,  37. 

Reduced    facsimile    of    Check    No.    1, 

opp.  26. 
Reduced  facsimile  of  first  policy  issued, 

opp.  28. 
Removal     to     Fourth     and     Chestnut 

Streets,  33. 
Report,  Annual,  21,  22,  23,  24,  26,  37, 

38,  39,  40,  41,  43,  44,  60,  67,  68,  69, 

70,  75. 
Reversionary  additions  provided  for,  22. 
Rhoads,  William  G.,  55,  87. 
Richards,  Thomas  J.,  55,  87. 
Rue,  Levi  L.,  49,  opp.  54,  86. 


[100] 


FIFTY  YEARS 


Safe  Deposit  Department,  55. 
Safe-deposit  vaults,  33. 
Scattergood,  Alfred  G.,  55. 
Scattergood,  Thomas,  opp.  42,  85,  86. 
Scott,  William  M,  62. 
Second  Office,  1866  to  1872,  opp.  24. 
Shipley,  Murray,  opp.  36,  85. 
Shipley,   Samuel   R.,  frontispiece,   13, 

33,  61,  65,  76,  85,  86. 
Smedley,  William,  23,  63. 
Smith,  Joseph  R.,  20. 
Stability  of  Provident  business,  28. 
Statement,  21,  22. 

States  in  which  Provident  is  licensed,  58. 
Stockholders'  dividend,  first,  21. 
Stockholders,  first  meeting  of,  13,  21. 
Strawbridge,  Frederic  H.,opp.  40,  86. 
Strawbridge,  Justus  C,  opp.  40,  85. 
Supervision    by    state    as  to   solvency, 

34. 

Taber,  Augustus,  85. 

Taxation,  82. 

Taylor,  Frank  H.,  opp.  44,  86. 

Taylor,  Jonathan  K.,  63,  83. 

Tellers'  Department,  55. 

Term  insurance,  68,  74,  75. 

Third  Office,  1873  to  1879,  opp.  24. 

Thomas,  J.  Preston,  opp.  42,  85,  86. 

Thurston,  William  R.,  85. 

Title  Department,  47. 

Townsend,  Eusebius,  20. 


Townsend,  J.  Barton,  33,  47,  50,  67, 
86,  87. 

Townsend,  Joseph  B.,  17,  opp.  22. 

Townsend,  Joseph   B.,   Jr.,  49,   opp. 
52,  86. 

Troth,  Samuel  H.,  33,  51,  87. 

Trust  business,  76. 

Trust  business,  inclusion  of,  in  Char- 
ter, 12. 

Trust  Department,  31,  45. 

Trust    Department,    analysis   of    1914 
figures,  46. 

Trust  Department,  growth  of,  46. 

Walker,  Matthew,  54,  87. 
Walker,  William  H.,  63. 
Watson,  James  V.,  opp.  40,  85,  86. 
Way,  John,  52,  87. 
Weed,  Frank  H.,  47. 
Williams,  Parker  S.,  opp.  46,  86. 
Willits,  Dr.  Charles  H.,  54,  87. 
Wing,  Asa  S.,  18,  29,  31,  48,  60,  61, 

83,  85,  86. 
Wistar,  Dr.  Thomas,  15,  opp.  20,  87. 
Women,  insurance  of,  69. 
Wood,  George,  49,  opp.  56,  86. 
Wood,  Henry  T.,  85. 
Wood,  Richard,  13,  20,  opp.  32, 85,  86. 
Wright,  Elizur,  21,  29. 

Yerger,  William  D.,  62. 
Young  Franklin,  The,  94. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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